With his back against the wall, the former UFC Heavyweight champion looked better than ever.

So as an analyst it’s par for the course that you’ll have hits and misses when it comes to fight analysis. But boy was I wrong about the main event of UFC Fight Night 86. Junior dos Santos wasn’t simply a challenge for Ben Rothwell. In fact, the former UFC Heavyweight champion proved exactly why he was once considered the best in the world with a five round domination over Rothwell. The performance was masterful, showed that dos Santos is still growing, and proved that even an old dog can learn new tricks. There’s a tendency after every big fight to speculate what’s next for the winners, usually many people touting that the victor should be considered a major title threat or something of the like. In this instance, it’s something that needs to be considered. Junior dos Santos was always a good striker with some decent footwork, albeit that same footwork has gotten him into trouble as he’s been known to constantly back into the fence. But this time around was different. The former UFC Heavyweight champion stayed away from the cage, always constantly aware of his positioning and poised to move away from the cage once he sensed he was backing up for far too long. Rothwell, as game as he was, seemed to be completely confounded and had no solution to the puzzle that was dos Santos. Sure, Rothwell had the right idea, pressure dos Santos and push up up against the fence, but it became steadily apparent that doing so would prove to be more and more difficult as the fight stretched onward. Dos Santos’ feints and fakes, his sharp jab, his hard right hand power shots to both the head and body proved to be too much for Rothwell to handle. Junior dos Santos looked like a man reborn. He’ll have to be consistent and prove that he can continue to put on performance of this caliber, but it would seem that the move to American Top Team has proven to be exactly what the former champion needed. The Heavyweight division has never been this exciting and with so many potential match ups, most all of them being rematches for dos Santos, matches in the within the 265 lbs weight limit are sure to be interesting. Were you impressed by Junior dos Santos’ return to form? Follow Generation Iron MMA on Facebook and Twitter. Also, be sure to share, like, and comment to show your support.

Jonathan Salmon is a writer, martial arts instructor, and geek culture enthusiast. Check out his Twitter and Facebook to keep up with his antics.