Junior Dos Santos (17-4) tore through the UFC’s heavyweight division en route to the UFC Heavyweight Championship. He has struggled to put together back-to-back victories since his time as champion came to an end at December 2012 and has not regained his previous form.
On April 10, Dos Santos is set to step inside the cage with Ben Rothwell (36-9). It could be the start of his redemption story, or it could send him spiraling further down the ranks at heavyweight.
Dos Santos burst onto the scene with a stunning 80-second knockout over Fabricio Werdum at UFC 90 in October 2008 and kept right on rolling.
Until December 29, 2012.
On that day, Cain Velasquez got his vengeance in a rematch for the gold and battered Dos Santos for five full rounds. It wasn’t close. It wasn’t competitive. But Cigano rebounded against Mark Hunt five months later, although he took his fair share of punishment in that outing as well.
The win earned him a rubber match against Velasquez, but the result was the same. Another vicious beating left some wondering how it would affect his fighting future. Given his performances since that date in October 2013, it has proved to be a valid concern. He has never looked the same, and that includes his performance in the December 2014 win over Stipe Miocic.
Dos Santos is a man who wears his heart on his sleeve in victory or defeat. It is an admirable quality that gives fans an insight into who he is as a person. However, that vulnerability also brings into question what another loss would do to him.
In a recent interview with Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour, Dos Santos discussed falling on hard times after losing the championship belt.
“To deal with this negative moment for me has been very tough because since my debut in the UFC in 2008, I just had victories, victories and victories until I became champion of the world,” said Dos Santos (h/t MMA Fighting). “Then I lost to Cain Velasquez, I started to live bad, bad moments, including with injuries, and I’m trying to go out of those moments and start living the winning moments again.”
Cigano knows this is a must-win situation, and he admitted how crucial this upcoming bout is after his recent losses.
“The moment that I’m living now is not that good,” Dos Santos told Helwani. “I’m coming from negative results, so I want to change these things and get back to my winning streak.”
His upcoming high-stakes heavyweight tilt has possible title implications but also has a storyline of a fallen champion struggling to make his way back to the peak of the mountain top.
The former champion will try to turn those bad moments to good against Rothwell in Zagreb, Croatia, on April 10.
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