Thiago Santos has the toughest fight thus far in his pro-MMA career booked as he’ll be the next fighter to challenge Jon Jones for the UFC light heavyweight title.
Jones will make his next title defense against this title contender at the upcoming UFC 239 pay-per-view event.
Santos earned this title opportunity after he beat Jan Błachowicz by TKO in the headliner of the UFC on ESPN+ 3 event in his last fight. This show went down at the O2 Arena in Prague, Czech Republic on February 23, 2019. After such an impressive showing, UFC President Dana White granted him the title opportunity.
The UFC 239 pay-per-view event is set to take place on Saturday, July 6, 2019 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The main card will air on pay-per-view at 10 p.m. ET. The preliminary card will air on ESPN at 8 p.m. ET and the ESPN’s streaming service, ESPN+.
Thiago Santos Has A Mission
Santos spoke with MMAJunkie about this bout and broke down the strategy that could see him dethrone Jones in order to become champion. While he doesn’t have a direct gameplan set just yet, he does vow to make Jones suffer everywhere.
“We haven’t really been able to see a weakness in his game,” Santos said. “But we have never seen him with his back against the ground – better yet, with his back to the ground and a hand landing heavily. Then, we’ll see. That’s something we haven’t seen, how he reacts to a powerful ground-and-pound from the top. But anyway, more than ever I need to be ready for anything. He’s a very well-rounded guy, he adjusts to wherever the fight is, so my strategy is to make him feel bad wherever he is.”
