Tag: Thiago Santos

Doctor Has No Scientific Explanation For How Thiago Santos Fought Jon Jones With Knee Injuries

Thiago Santos impressed a lot of people with his performance at UFC 239. Santos took on Jones in the main event of the pay-per-view (PPV). He was able to batter “Bones’” legs with kicks, unload some explosive blitzes, all while clearly suffering through a painful injury to his leg. It was later determined that Santos […]

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Thiago Santos impressed a lot of people with his performance at UFC 239. Santos took on Jones in the main event of the pay-per-view (PPV).

He was able to batter “Bones’” legs with kicks, unload some explosive blitzes, all while clearly suffering through a painful injury to his leg. It was later determined that Santos had surgery prior to his fight with Jones, and he was suffering through several torn ligaments.

Despite all his physical setbacks, Santos fought Jones to the first split decision of his career. Although unable to pick up the win, the Brazilian gained a massive amount of respect from the mixed martial arts (MMA) community. According to ESPN’s Greg Rosenstein, Santos not only has one injured knee, but two. He’ll undergo surgery on both today (Wed. July 17, 2019) in Los Angeles:

“It was already certain that I’d have to operate one knee, but the doctor gave another look on the right and said I’ll have to operate that one as well on the meniscus,” Santos said.

When Santos’ doctor was asked how the Brazilian knockout artist was able to battle Jones for five rounds given the injuries, he was unable to give a scientific explanation:

“This is not normal. This was his mind. I don’t have a scientific explanation for that.”

What do you think about Santos battling through several knee injures to give Jones the closest fight of his career?

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Johnny Walker: I’ll Knock Jon Jones Out If He Fights Me The Way He Did Thiago Santos

Johnny Walker has been the talk of the light heavyweight division for the past several months. Walker has been laying waste to his opponents inside the Octagon rather quickly. He was recently sidelined due to an injury suffered inside the Octagon in his recent outing. However, the injury didn’t occur due to damage inflicted by […]

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Johnny Walker has been the talk of the light heavyweight division for the past several months.

Walker has been laying waste to his opponents inside the Octagon rather quickly. He was recently sidelined due to an injury suffered inside the Octagon in his recent outing. However, the injury didn’t occur due to damage inflicted by his opponent, or damage he inflicted on himself while damaging his opponent.

Instead, Walker was injured while doing the worm as his post-fight celebration. Now that the young Brazilian has been medically cleared to return to the Octagon, he continues to hype an eventual clash with light heavyweight champion Jon Jones. Due to his early dominance, many have speculated that Walker could be the man to finally give “Bones” a run for his money inside the cage.

Speaking to MMA Fighting recently, Walker addressed Jones’ most recent performance inside the Octagon at UFC 239, where Jones just edged out Walker’s fellow countryman, Thiago Santos, via split decision. Walker said that, if Jones fights him the way he did Santos, he’s going to knock the 205-pound king out:

“I think he can do much better than that,” Walker said. “He definitely has to do more against me, otherwise I’ll knock him out in the first round. I think ‘Marreta’ was a great challenge.

“But ‘Marreta’ got hurt in the first round. Jones is the champion and would obviously win if it went to the scorecards, so I think he took his foot off the gas and the fight went the way you saw.”

Jones has been critical of the mixed martial arts (MMA) community for hyping a fight between himself and a virtually unknown fighter who hasn’t yet defeated a top-ranked opponent. He recently posted the following on Twitter:

“You guys want me to fight someone who is unknown to the general public and hasn’t even fought a top 10 opponent yet? Think about it. Besides if I beat him in December, what would everyone have to look forward to?”

Walker believes Jones is simply scared of getting beat by an unknown fighter, and how much such an occurrence would tarnish his legacy:

“Well, he’s right,” Walker said. “I still haven’t done much (in the UFC). But there aren’t many guys who would give me a big challenge. I don’t have to beat a top 5. People talk too much crap, man.

“People say I don’t have jiu-jitsu, I don’t have wrestling. They say I have to fight a wrestler. The last wrestler I fought lasted five seconds. I’m ready for him and I know I’d be a big challenge. I think he’s afraid to lose to an unknown guy.”

Do you think Walker is the man to finally defeat Jones inside of the Octagon?

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Jon Jones Coach ‘Surprised’ By Scorecard Favoring Thiago Santos

The striking coach of Jon Jones, Brandon Gibson was taken aback when he heard the scorecard of a judge scoring his fight to Thiago Santos. Jones defeated Santos earlier this month at UFC 239 in a career-first split decision, with one of the judges scoring it 48-47 to the Brazilian. It was all the more […]

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The striking coach of Jon Jones, Brandon Gibson was taken aback when he heard the scorecard of a judge scoring his fight to Thiago Santos.

Jones defeated Santos earlier this month at UFC 239 in a career-first split decision, with one of the judges scoring it 48-47 to the Brazilian. It was all the more impressive considering Santos was heavily compromised early on in the fight, having torn every ligament in his left knee.

However, even if Santos did win the first round, Jones did enough to win the remaining rounds according to Gibson:

“I was surprised,” Gibson told MMA Fighting on Monday. “It is part of our job as coaches and trainers to be aware of how a round could have gone. We knew the first round was ultra-competitive but I thought [rounds] 2 through 5 were clearly Jon and I thought we were up.

“We weren’t asking Jon to coast or fight safe or anything like that or protect the lead. We’re always hunting. I was surprised that one judge saw it that way and I was a little surprised some media members I really respect saw it in Thiago’s favor.”

Gibson believes while “Marreta” did land some shots and made a good account of himself, they were not really impactful shots that hurt the reigning light heavyweight champion:

“I just think I have a view as good as any judge during the fight and I thought Jon’s pressure, his feints, his volume, his defense, won us that fight,” Gibson added. “Thiago missed a lot on his counters but maybe the judges thought they were landing.

“They were glancing shots, they were shots that were hitting Jon’s chest or Jon’s shoulders but Thiago came hard to fight for sure.”

Jones Better In Rematches

There have been calls for a rematch, even though it likely won’t happen until 2020 because of Santos requiring surgery.

Regardless, Gibson believes Jones would perform even better in a rematch as he did in his second fights with Daniel Cormier and Alexander Gustafsson:

“Jon’s ability to take in information is so extraordinary,” Gibson explained. “That’s what he’s proven with his rematches against [Alexander] Gustafsson and [Daniel] Cormier. Thiago is still young in this sport. Light heavyweight is a thin division at times and even though there’s a lot of up and comers, I’m sure Thiago can be right back up there in contendership soon.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw him again and I’d be really happy to see what we could put together after learning for these five rounds.”

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Coach Believes Jon Jones’ Decision Win Over Thiago Santos Was Clear

Striking coach Brandon Gibson was taken aback when Thiago Santos took a scorecard in his UFC light heavyweight title bout with Jon Jones. Jones successfully defended his gold against Santos in the main event of UFC 239. “Bones” took a split…

Striking coach Brandon Gibson was taken aback when Thiago Santos took a scorecard in his UFC light heavyweight title bout with Jon Jones. Jones successfully defended his gold against Santos in the main event of UFC 239. “Bones” took a split decision victory. While many fans and media members thought the fight was close, UFC […]

The post Coach Believes Jon Jones’ Decision Win Over Thiago Santos Was Clear appeared first on MMA News.

Thiago Santos: There Will ‘Definitely’ Be Another Fight With Jon Jones

A rematch with Jon Jones would be a “dream” for Thiago Santos and he believes it will definitely happen in the future. Jones defeated Santos at UFC 239 this past weekend to retain his light heavyweight title. However, it was via a career-first split decision, with one judge scoring the fight in favor of Santos. […]

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A rematch with Jon Jones would be a “dream” for Thiago Santos and he believes it will definitely happen in the future.

Jones defeated Santos at UFC 239 this past weekend to retain his light heavyweight title. However, it was via a career-first split decision, with one judge scoring the fight in favor of Santos. It was all the more impressive considering “Maretta” tore every ligament in his left knee early on in the fight.

While a rematch won’t happen in the immediate future as Santos requires surgery and will be out for the remainder of 2019 at the least, he wants another crack at Jones — this time at 100 percent:

“Surely a rematch with him is a dream,” Santos told Combate (via BJ Penn). “I want to recover from my knee and I sure want to fight him 100 percent, to see how it will be with me being 100 percent, playing my game, doing what we trained. There’s definitely going to be another fight.”

Many were surprised at Santos’ performance as not many expected him to take Jones the full distance, especially with a compromised knee. And Santos hopes his showing leaves a positive message to people around the world:

“I do not know if I shocked the world, but I think I could leave a message, which is what I like to leave, to pass on, I think the most important thing is the legacy we leave,” Santos explained. “I think in this fight I left a lot of people happy, I spent a lot of this fight overcoming the difficulties. I think I was having a hard time at the beginning of the fight and a lot of people would have stopped there, so at least a good message, overcoming, resisting, you keep trying, not giving up, I think that message I was able to pass to people.“

Jones, meanwhile, has not been as receptive to a rematch.

Do you think we will see a rematch between Jones and Santos? Who do you think takes it the second time?


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After Close Fight, Thiago Santos ‘Dreams’ Of Jon Jones Rematch

Thiago Santos arguably gave Jon Jones the toughest fight of his career. Although many point to the Alexander Gustafsson fight, Santos is the only person to win a judge’s scorecard against the light heavyweight champion. Not only did Santos give J…

Thiago Santos arguably gave Jon Jones the toughest fight of his career. Although many point to the Alexander Gustafsson fight, Santos is the only person to win a judge’s scorecard against the light heavyweight champion. Not only did Santos give Jones a tough fight, but he also did so on practically one knee. He tore […]

The post After Close Fight, Thiago Santos ‘Dreams’ Of Jon Jones Rematch appeared first on MMA News.