By Jose M. Romero

TEMPE, Ariz. – You can bet that when Cain Velasquez speaks to college wrestlers, they listen.

Even if Velasquez – the former UFC heavyweight champion who hopes to regain his title on Dec. 29 in Las Vegas against Junior Dos Santos at UFC 155 – is a man of few words.

Velasquez, 30, returned to his college roots Tuesday morning with a quick visit to the Arizona State wrestling room for a short talk with the current Sun Devils. Velasquez won the Pac-10 heavyweight national title in 2005 and 2006, and was also an All-American in those years.

Velasquez, who has a bachelor’s degree in education from ASU, is the first Mexican American to win a major professional heavyweight title in mixed martial arts (MMA) or boxing history. He has a career record of 9-1 in UFC, and after losing his title to Dos Santos in the first round on Nov. 12 of last year, defeated Antonio Silva on May 26 to put himself in position for a shot at the title.

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By Simon Samano
For Fox Deportes
 
If Cain Velasquez wanted to, he could’ve immediately sought UFC president Dana White and demanded his next fight be for the heavyweight championship. But that’s not Velasquez’s style. He’s the kind of guy who speaks softly and carries a big stick, and let’s his fighting do all the talking.
 
Boy, did his performance Saturday night at UFC 146 speak volumes, as Velasquez was savage in defeating Antonio “Big Foot” Silva by way of technical knockout three minutes and 36 seconds into the first round of the co-main event.
 

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By Simon Samano
For Fox Deportes
 
They showed up in droves and packed the sold-out Honda Center to the rafters, excited to see their new champion fight. With as electric as the atmosphere was that night in Anaheim, Calif., you’d have thought Maná was playing a concert.
 
It’s been six long months since the night Cain Velasquez first tasted defeat, six long months since he was knocked out in 64 seconds to lose the UFC heavyweight title to Junior dos Santos. Not only did Velasquez let down himself and his team, it happened in front of a huge Southern California Mexican-American crowd that was there to support him.
 

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By Simon Samano
For Fox Deportes
 
When Cain Velasquez and Antonio Silva meet in the octagon this Saturday at UFC 146, both fighters will have plenty at stake.
 
For Velasquez, who’s fighting for the first time since losing the heavyweight championship six months ago, this is his opportunity to bounce back strong. It’s conceivable that a victory, especially a dominant one, would likely earn him a shot at the belt.
 

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By Simon Samano
For Fox Deportes
 
Cain Velasquez is a huge favorite to defeat Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva at UFC 146. The way I, and most people see it, there’s just no way for Silva to handle Velasquez’s elite striking and wrestling, as well as his cardio that rivals most middleweights.
 
Silva himself seems to know this – not to the point where he’s conceding defeat in his UFC debut, but he knows the odds are stacked against him. And so it’s no surprise that Silva has looked outside his camp in preparing for the former heavyweight champion.
 

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By Simon Samano
For Fox Deportes

Have you seen “The Avengers”, yet? I have. It was pretty awesome. Didn’t disappoint at all.
 
Actually, “Avengers” was the first traditional comic-book movie I was pumped to watch since “Spider Man 2” back in 2004. I say “traditional” because Christopher Nolan’s rendition of the Batman franchise is in a category all its own of comic-book movies. But I’ve digressed. …
 
Anyway, the opening of “The Avengers” last weekend means Hollywood’s blockbuster season is upon us, but it’s not just movies we should be looking forward to this summer.
 
Between the Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends, the UFC has a number of big fights that have fans fraught with anticipation, which includes all but the welterweight championship on the line. Here are my top 10 UFC blockbusters:
 
1. Anderson Silva vs. Chael Sonnen II, July 7
The bad blood here is boiling — at least for Sonnen it is. This middleweight title rematch set for UFC 148 has been nearly two years in the making. Sonnen has been longing for it, and now he’ll finally get his chance to prove his near-victory over Silva at UFC 117 was no fluke. We’d never seen Silva pummeled the way Sonnen dominated him for 20 minutes, until “The Spider” pulled out a miracle triangle armbar submission in the fifth round. No way Silva let’s that happen again, right? Seriously, you don’t want to miss this fight.
 

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By Simon Samano
For Fox Deportes

UFC president Dana White went back on his word, after all.

See, I told you Twitter contracts aren’t binding. Only problem is that it’s too bad the reshuffle of the UFC 146 co-main events didn’t happen differently.

But, as it stands, with Alistair Overeem out of the picture because of his positive drug test, we can officially look forward to seeing Junior dos Santos defend his heavyweight title against Frank Mir on May 26, along with Cain Velasquez taking on Antonio “Big Foot” Silva.

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