Sherdog’s Top 10: Ground-and-Pounders

4. Cain Velasquez
No one knows how much more Velasquez would have accomplished over the past few years had health not been such an issue. The American Kickboxing Academy ace made his Ultimate Fighting Championship debut in 2008 and quickly established himself as a force to be reckoned with in the heavyweight division, capturing the title a little less than three years later.

A two-time NCAA All-American wrestler at Arizona State University, Velasquez’s background provided his base for success in MMA; and a seemingly limitless gas tank allowed him to find gears none of his opponents had. Velasquez has chewed up and spit out a lengthy list of top-flight heavyweights, from Junior dos Santos (twice) and Antonio Silva (twice) to Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Brock Lesnar and Ben Rothwell. At 33, he still has time to build on his legacy, provided he can stay injury-free.

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