Thiago Santos appeared to suffer an injury to his left knee during his bout with Jon Jones at UFC 239, but it was his right knee that needed surgery earlier this year.
One of the first things that Thiago Santos did after agreeing to fight Jon Jones at UFC 239 this past Saturday, July 6th, was to go get surgery to repair his injured knee. But, not the left one, that he appeared to damage early in his 5 round battle with Jones—it was his right that needed the work.
First announced in late March, with only a verbal agreement in place at the time, Santos apparently began his camp for Jon Jones under the knife. Surgery was followed by 45 days of rehab, leaving Santos with just two months to get ready for his first chance at UFC gold. This according to Santos’ coach ‘Tata’ Duarte, in a recent interview with MMA Fighting.
“The camp started with a 45-day delay and Thiago only had two months to prepare for this fight, but still didn’t want to pull out,” Duarte said. “The doctor gave us a timeline but we had a problem later. Heather (Linden), physical therapist of the UFC, was the one who recovered his knee. She was at UFC 237 in Rio and kept working on his knee for six days straight and found out what the problem was and was able to fix it. That’s when he started his camp.
“We told him, ‘Thiago, let’s pull out of the fight,’ and he said, ‘No, I won’t pull out.’ He didn’t want to. We did this camp in two months. It should have been at least three months, but we didn’t have that time.”
Despite the short prep time, however, Duarte feels that it was only the in fight injury that prevented Santos from defeating Jones in Las Vegas. Had he been able to continue switching stances to throw his kicks, Santos may very well be holding a UFC title today. Still, Duarte thinks that Santos’ performance, even in a loss, only elevated his status with fans.
“I think (Santos) comes out way bigger than he was before. When I was carrying him out of the Octagon, everybody there, Americans and Brazilians, were cheering on him and booing Jon Jones’ interview. I’m gonna be honest with you, that to me is worth more than the belt. To be applauded and recognized like that, to have people thinking he won.”
For his part, Jones has already stated that he expects he’ll be fighting ‘Marreta’ again at some point in the future. “Re-matching people right away is really not in my interest right now. But, I know he will be back for a rematch, and I’ll be ready,” Jones told assembled reporters during a post-fight media scrum.