Fan opinion: Junior Dos Santos vs Gabriel Gonzaga fight breakdown.

The 25 year old Brazilian Junior Dos Santos was born in Santa Catarina, Brazil in 1984. He holds a record of 10-1(8ko,2sub) and holds a brown belt in BJJ. He also holds an 18-0 kickboxing record and is ranked number 6 in the world’s heavyweights by the independent world MMA rankings. He is 6ft 4in and weighs in at 236lbs with a 77 inch reach.

Fellow Brazilian Gabriel Gonzaga is the older of the two at 30 and was born May 18th 1979 in Rio de Janeiro. He holds a record of 11-4(5ko,6sub), holds a black belt in BJJ and has Muay Thai experience. He is also an ADCC submissions wrestling champion. Gonzaga is 6ft 2in weighs in at 260lbs with a 76 inch reach.

Now my fight breakdowns are predictions on how I think the fights will go, based on Training histories of each fighter, Records (example KO or sub victories and losses and how many fights) and on how I think the styles may contrast. Please don’t bet your savings on what I write and feel free to comment or tweet me as these posts are only for Lowkick.com.

So its time for the game plans. Junior Dos Santos, I think, will be the more aggressive fighter in the stand up position. He has won 8 of his 10 victories by way of knock out and scored a submission victory over Pride legend Mirko Cro Cop, after huge knees from the clinch and a big combo with the hands Cro Cop verbally submitted. Although if the fight is taken to the ground Dos Santos has a brown belt in BJJ so he is no slouch on the from the canvas. But I think with his heavy hands he will want to extend his 5 fight win streak by way of KO.

On to Gonzaga, I don’t think he will be desperate to get the fight to the ground but with his long record in submission fighting and 6 of his 11 wins coming by way of sub I think that if he is able to finish Dos Santos it will be by sub rather than risking an all out stand up war with the KO tactician. Also it comes to mind that all of Gonzaga’s losses are by way of KO or TKO, one of which was at the hands of hall of fame inductee and UFC legend Randy Couture. In their fight at UFC 74 we saw Randy brutalize Gabriel with dirty boxing and clinch fighting against the cage, Randy opened up a cut early on and the fight was almost stopped with Gonzaga claiming he couldn’t see. The fight was eventually stopped in the third round with Gonzaga being ground and pounded by couture against the cage. So I think Gonzaga will have cautious striking and takedowns in his game plan.

How I think the styles will contrast is that we have an interesting matchup. With one fighter mainly known for his stand up skills and kickboxing history (Santos) and the other well versed in submissions but also with good KO power as proven in 5 out of his 11 wins but who has failed tests of his chin in all 4 of his losses. So I think we will have good striking with takedown and clinch attempts from Gonzaga and takedown defense with heavy handed striking from Dos Santos.

So for the fight prediction:

Round 1: The fighters will come out fast paced from the start. Gonzaga with improved head movement and defense and some good jabs and straight punches, Dos Santos I feel though will over power him with big uppercuts and hooks forcing Gonzaga to back away from the striking game and aim for desperate takedown attempts in order to avoid a KO loss. Dos Santos, I think, will have good takedown defense, sprawling and brawling and forcing Gonzaga to stand with him. The fight will end in the first round by way of a nasty uppercut to the chin of Gonzaga who is flattened, the ref stepping in to avoid any more punishment coming from Dos Santos who landed some ground and pound quickly after the KO punch. Junior Dos Santos by 1st round KO.

Some information sourced at Wikipedia, all predictions and comparisons original.