Can Mexican Fans Help Cain Velasquez Become the Top Star in all of Combat Sports?
The champion. For 100 years, you could say those two words and the world would know who you were referring to. From Joe Louis, to Muhammad Ali, to Mike Tyson, the heavyweight champion of the world was sacrosanct. In the post-Tyson world, that stature has been diminished. Today, most sports fans couldn’t even tell you who the heavyweight boxing champion is. Does that leave room in our cultural consciousness for the UFC champion? Can a cage fighter fill that gap? ESPN’s Jake Rossen thinks many sports fans aren’t ready yet. Part of the problem? Cain Velasquez’s win over Brock Lesnar: That it’s Velasquez who holds the title is another wrinkle: Fans, especially casual ones, enjoy consistency. Ali held belts for years, as did Tyson and Lennox Lewis. Brock Lesnar, who was quickly reaching mythical status, could defend his UFC belt only twice before running into the limits of his skill set. Velasquez might fare better, or he might get the business end of Junior dos Santos; Santos, in turn, cou
