The former UFC heavyweight champion shared an update on his shoulder and how he was feeling following a disappointing end to a promising first fight outside the UFC.
Junior dos Santos’ post-UFC career got off to a bumpy start at Eagle FC 47 on Friday night when he dislocated his shoulder in a fight against Yorgan De Castro. The incident, which resulted in the fight ending via TKO (injury) at 0:35 of the third round, was unfortunate as dos Santos was looking pretty good in the cage up until that point (watch the highlights here).
Extra unfortunate is how the injury might have derailed a proposed cross-promotional superfight between Eagle FC and Bellator to put Junior dos Santos up against Fedor Emelianenko for “The Last Emperor’s” reported final bout.
Eagle FC 47 main event ends after Junior dos Santos dislocates his shoulder pic.twitter.com/DMRhp1j84D
— Eagle FC (@EagleFightClub) May 21, 2022
Following the bout, Junior dos Santos took to Instagram to send a message and overall he sounded pretty upbeat about the whole thing.
“Hey guys, I’m home already,” he said. “I took my shower, I had my dinner, I’m ready to get some rest now. My shoulder is back in place, on this position like this, no pain. I already talked to my doctor, we’re going to do some [Magnetic Resonance Imaging] and figure out what’s going to be the procedures to get this thing better as soon as possible.”
“But before going to bed I’d like to share with you guys that I was feeling so happy, I was feeling very good during the fight,” dos Santos continued. “Like I haven’t felt in a long long time. So it was good. It was good because I was able to deliver everything I worked for. All the hard work in the gym, I was able to bring to inside the octagon on the day of the fight. And things were working good for us until we had this injury.”
Fortunately for “Cigano,” it sounds like Eagle FC president Khabib Nurmagomedov is still set on trying to set up a fight with Fedor.
“I think it’s still viable,” Nurmagomedov said in an interview with The Underground. “Because even if he lost, Junior looked amazing. Everybody see tonight, he’s improved a lot and he was looking amazing. And I think it’s still interesting … I think after three or four months, he can come back to sparring, and at the end of the year we can make this fight. Next week I’m going to sit with Scott Coker and we’re going to discuss about this fight.”
Bellator hasn’t had any clear ideas on what to do with Fedor Emelianenko since their original plan to have him fight in Moscow’s Red Square fell apart due to Russia’s war with Ukraine. A rematch between Emelianenko and Ryan Bader hasn’t excited many people outside of Fedor, and even with this less than optimal set-up, a bout between dos Santos and Emelianenko may be the biggest heavyweight bout both promotions could put together.
Maniacs, are you still interested in seeing Fedor Emelianenko face off against Junior dos Santos?