Cain Velasquez will defend his title for the first time against Junior dos Santos in the main event of the first UFC on Fox event on November 12 in Anaheim, California, UFC President Dana White announced Friday.
“We wanted to deliver to Fox. We wanted to deliver to fans. We wanted to kick off with a bang,” White said. “We’re going with the most prestigious championship in all of sports – the heavyweight title.”
Velasquez vs. Dos Santos was expected to headline UFC 139 on November 19 in San Jose, but the event will be given a new main event.
The one-hour special, which was expected to include two live fights, will only feature Velasquez vs. Dos Santos, with replays from the preliminary card filling the timeslot if the main event doesn’t go a full five-rounds. The complete preliminary card will also be available to watch, but it has not yet been decided if it will be on Facebook.com/UFC or another platform.
Velasquez (9-0) has been sidelined by a shoulder injury since he claimed the title and remained unbeaten with a first-round TKO of Brock Lesnar last October, while dos Santos (13-1) most-recently topped Shane Carwin, who replaced an injured Lesnar at June’s UFC 131, for his seventh-straight UFC win.
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