They were arguably the two heaviest hitters of their generation, which made them natural foils at the top of the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s heavyweight division.
Cain Velasquez and Junior dos Santos toed the line against one another three times between Nov. 12, 2011 and Oct. 19, 2013, as their historic tug of war came to define a weight class for nearly two full years. Velasquez won two of the three meetings, with all three ending in conclusive fashion. Now more than a decade removed from their final encounter, the two men remain interminably linked by what took place between them inside the cage.