UFC 166 is probably an event that Junior Dos Santos would rather forget, which is just as well because reports suggest he really can’t remember much about it at all.
According to the Combate site in Brazil, Dos Santos actually thought the fight ended in the second round, when in fact Velasquez didn’t finish him until late in the fifth round. His camp feel he was essentially fighting on auto-pilot for the last three rounds.
After the bout, UFC president Dana White expressed his disappointment that the fight hadn’t been stopped much earlier as Dos Santos is “too tough for his own good” and was taking a lot of unnecessary punishment.
In his opinion the fight should have been stopped in the third round, and indeed it almost was as referee Herb Dean went as far as too lay a hand on Dos Santos during during a sustained assault from Velasquez in that round, appearing ready to call an end to the fight, only to think better of it and retreat as the Brazilian remained standing.
Apparently the former champion also has no recollection of his post-fight interview with Joe Rogan, though he has nothing to worry about in that regard as he was extremely dignified in defeat.
It’s sad to hear of Dos Santos being in this kind of condition after the fight, but the good news is that he was released from hospital early on Sunday and he feels absolutely fine.
“I’m feeling good. I came to the hospital to have some stitches in the cut I had. The pain is only in the heart, because I didn’t manage to give a good performance in the Octagon,” Dos Santos told Combate.com.
UFC 166 is being hailed as one of the best events in recent memory, but it was also one of the most brutal. Along with Dos Santos’ sustained beating, Diego Sanchez also endured an exceptional amount of firepower from Gilbert Melendez in a fight that’s already being declared by many as ‘Fight Of The Year’.
TJ Waldburger perhaps suffered the worst of all though, having to be stretchered out of the Octagon and taken immediately to hospital after being KO’d by Adlan Amagov and then eating several more punches before the out-of-place referee finally got close enough to bring an end to the fight.
