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What's the story?
Following a win over Eryk Anders at UFC Fight Night 137, Thiago Santos stated that he apparently feel pretty well about his fight in the Light Heavyweight Division and claimed that his body felt really good at 205 pounds.
In case you didn't know...
Following the conclusion of The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil 2, Thiago Santos was initially signed to a UFC contract and made his promotional debut at UFC 163 against the winner of TUF: Brazil, Cezar Ferreira, in a losing effort.
However, Santos eventually bounced back from his debut loss and picked up wins over the likes of Anthony Smith, Kevin Holland, and very recently against Eryk Anders at UFC Fight Night 137 in Sao Paolo, Brazil.
Santos, who was initially scheduled to face Jimi Manuwa in Brazil, scored an impressive third-round TKO win over Anders in front of his home crowd.
The heart of the matter
While interacting with the media at the UFC Sao Paulo post-fight press conference, Thiago Santos assessed over his performance at the Light Heavyweight Division, claiming that him fighting at 205 pounds apparently affected his performance in a huge manner, helping him in his cardio game and his punch resistance as well.
"Anders is not a light heavyweight. [This fight] was more for me to feel what it’s like to make 205 pounds. I felt really well. I got tired but it’s normal to get tired in a fight so intense like that. I felt well and conscious of what was happening. I felt power in my punches but I was a little bit slower. So I’ll sit down with my coaches and see what’s going to be done.”- Santos stated via MMA Fighting.
In addition to it, Santos noted that even though his punches are much heavier, he definitely felt that he was more resistant at the same time as well. And despite taking some hard punches, Santos apparently did not feel anything to his body, whereas, in the Middleweight Division found it tough to recover 100 percent.
"I took some hard punches and I didn’t feel them. At middleweight, due to the weight cut, and not being able to recover 100 percent, I am a little bit fragile. At middleweight, I was knocked out by [David Branch], who isn’t a knockout artist. He landed a punch and I was really upset by that.”
What's next?
Thiago Santos also further added that he is willing to re-book his fight against Jimi Manuwa and his hoping to fight the Brit at some point down the line, so it remains interesting to be seen if the UFC books a fight between the pair or not.
