Light heavyweight Thiago Santos promises to come back in the best shape ever after his loss to Glover Teixeira.
After a disappointing loss in his only 2020 outing, light heavyweight contender Thiago Santos is eager to show the world he is not done just yet. Not only did the loss to Glover Teixeira put ‘Marreta’ on two-fight losing skid, it also pushed him further away from his pursuit towards UFC gold, a goal the Brazilian wants to ensure fans that still is very much on his mind.
In an interview with Ag Fight, Santos claims to now be much better than the version of himself who who lost to Teixeira back in November 2020. Because he stayed away from the Octagon for over a year after tearing ligaments in both of his knees in his title fight against Jon Jones, Thiago says the loss to his fellow countryman was merely a warm-up for his real return.
“I’m much more prepared than I was when I fought Glover,” Santos said. “I’ve had more time now and the Glover fight was just a warm-up. I was coming off a long layoff, my timing was off, but I don’t mean to make excuses. Now I’m 100% ready and 100 times better than the last time.”
“I’ve been giving a lot of focus to wrestling and jiu-jitsu.” Santos continued. “Not that I wasn’t training that ahead of the Glover fight, but now I’m doing it more than ever. It surely will be a different Marreta. Always aggressive, but taking his time, always aware. It will be a different fight.”
Now that he feels healthy and the ring rust was properly shaken off, Santos is once again aiming to pursuit the title. In order to make up for the time lost, Marreta will try to be as active as possible in order to put together a win streak and challenge the light heavyweight belt one more time.
“I’m healthy, I want to keep fighting. I want to fight as much as possible. I’m still chasing that belt. I’m young and I’m sure I still can and will be the champion of this division.”
Currently on a two-fight losing skid, Thiago Santos (21-8) got tapped out by Glover Teixeira back in November 2020. Before that, Marreta suffered a split decision defeat to then champion Jon Jones, in July 2019. The 37-year-old’s last win happened in February of the same year, when he TKO’d the division’s current champ, Jan Blachowicz.