Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC
Former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos has now lost three straight fights against Top 10 competition, with each defeat ending by way of brutal knockout.
Considering “Cigano” is 36 with a history of life-altering wars, there was talk of retirement after the Brazilian went down in flames to Jairzinho Rozenstruik at the UFC 252 pay-per-view (PPV) event last weekend in Las Vegas.
Not happening.
“It really bothers me because it’s the third consecutive loss,” Dos Santos told MMA Fighting. “I know what I’m capable of and I know my skills, I see myself in great shape both technically and physically as an athlete, and not having positive results makes no sense. I’m feeling great, so I think it would be a huge waste to consider (retirement) at the moment. I plan on moving forward and working hard to get better, and showing that I’m living an excellent moment.”
Dos Santos has now been stopped in six of eight losses.
In sports or generally any competition, doing everything right but losing anyway usually means the competition was better. I know that can be hard for an athlete to accept, particularly a gamer like Dos Santos, but the data (and his own comments) support that theory.
It will be interesting to see how the promotion matches him up moving forward. Even with his recent slump, the 21-8 Dos Santos still holds victories over Stipe Miocic, Derrick Lewis, and Fabricio Werdum, just to name a few.
Any suggestions?