Santiago Ponzinibbio still wants to fight former lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos.
Santiago Ponzinibbio still wants a piece of a certain former lightweight champion.
Fresh off a knockout win over Neil Magny in his home country of Argentina, the 32-year-old still has his sights set on Rafael dos Anjos, whom Santiago claims to be one of the fighters who turned down the offer to take him on in Buenos Aires when Kamaru Usman was forced out with an injury.
Now, one month later, Ponzinibbio says he is still waiting to take on Rafael, but this time around, Santiago tells Combate he will let the former champion choose the place and the time.
“I’m waiting for that diva, Rafael dos Anjos,” Ponzinibbio said. “The diva calls the shots. I’m just waiting on a confirmation from the diva. Let him pick the place. Just like all my fights, it’ll be another knockout. The diva said he wouldn’t fight me because it was in Argentina, he wanted to fight me in the U.S., well, just tell me when and where.”
Even though Rafael dos Anjos is currently on a two-fight losing skid, with losses to Colby Covington and Kamaru Usman, Ponzinibbio believes he would still be a good name on his resume, but wouldn’t mind taking on other notable names in the welterweight division, except for training partner Covington.
“I think dos Anjos is the more real option, because Colby is from my gym, we share some of the same coaches, like Mike Brown, so it’s no good,” he said. “The gym’s management warned us they’d prefer if they could avoid that fight unless it’s for the title, I’m ready to take anyone, I was never one to choose fights, I don’t care. Woodley, Usman, dos Anjos, they’re all good fights for me, I’ll knock anyone out.”
Santiao Ponzinibbio (27-3) is on a seven-fight winning streak, with wins over the likes of Andreas Stahl, Court McGee, Zak Cummings, Nordine Taleb, Gunnar Nelson, Mike Perry and Neil Magny. The Argentinian’s last loss came in June 2015, when he was TKO’d by Lorenz Larkin.