At first, Jimi Manuwa didn’t want to fight Thiago Santos at UFC Fight Night 137 on Sept. 22 from inside Ginasio do Ibirapuera in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
The hard-hitting light heavyweight contender was originally slated to fight former title contender Glover Teixeira in the main event. Teixeira was pulled due to injury and “Poster Boy” was without an opponent.
After much deliberation, Manuwa eventually agreed to take on middleweight striker Santos on short notice and retain his headlining spot at UFC Fight Night 137.
The decision wasn’t necessarily an easy one, but UFC’s persistence eventually ran its course and Manuwa ended up changing his mind.
“I didn’t see any incentive in taking the fight because it was coming from a middleweight,” Manuwa told MMA Fighting. “I wanted a good name, so I wasn’t really interested in fighting, but then the UFC persuaded me to take the fight. I had a little think about it, and Thiago Santos is a good fighter, so I accepted the fight.”
While UFC likely increased Manuwa’s payday for the change in opponent, the 38-year-old Englishman felt like he needed to step up in a big spot and deliver the goods in another main event bid.
“Sometimes you want to step up and … not do favors, but you’ve gotta tell me incentives to take the fight,” Manuwa said. “They explained to me, I had a talk with my coaches and my team and we accepted the fight.
“Everyone else didn’t make sense,” Manuwa added when asked about other potential opponents. “Everyone that was worth fighting already was matched up. It was very hard in the light heavyweight division because people were fighting or injured or unranked.
“The UFC knows they have to put a good event, a good opponent for me when I’m fighting because they know I’ll always put on a good show, I always come for the knockout. We’re going to put on a great main event for Sao Paulo. I look forward to coming there.”
As for the fight itself, Manuwa isn’t overlooking Santos despite the Brazilian moving up to 205 pounds for the first time in his professional career. After all, Santos is tied with Anderson Silva for the most knockouts in UFC middleweight history (8).
“Every fighter in the UFC is good, I don’t underrate any fighter. I’m training very hard,” Manuwa said. “I see he’s a good fighter, was a big middleweight, so coming up to light heavyweight shouldn’t be a problem for him. I look forward to the challenge. I always look forward to the challenge.
“I look forward to coming to Brazil. I love Brazil, I’ve always wanted to come to Brazil, and I’m coming to collect some new Brazilian fans because I know Brazilians love a good fight, they love a good knockout, and that’s what I’m coming to give them.”
Considering Manuwa is coming off back-to-back loses to Volkan Oezdemir and Jan Blachowicz, staying on the UFC Sao Paulo card was key if “Poster Boy” wants to regain momentum in a fairly shallow light heavyweight class.
The decision may end up biting him in the you know what if Santos can bring his knockout power up to 205 pounds, but it was the right move to make.
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