Jimi Manuwa explains why he initially didn’t have interest in fighting Thiago Santos.
Manuwa has dropped his last two bouts. He was knocked out by Volkan Oezdemir, then lost in a rematch with Jan Blachowicz via unanimous decision. This is the first time in Manuwa’s professional mixed martial arts career where he’s lost back-to-back bouts and the “Poster Boy” now finds himself trying to avoid his third straight defeat.
Jimi Manuwa Explains Holdup in Fighting Thiago Santos
Manuwa was scheduled to take on Glover Teixeira, but an injury to the Brazilian ruined those plans. Manuwa was then offered middleweight Santos, but initially didn’t show interest in the fight. After some trash talk from Santos, Manuwa agreed to the fight. He explained to WHOA TV why he wasn’t enamored with the bout when it was first presented to him:
“I really just wanted a higher ranked opponent than Santos. I want to move forward, he’s only ranked number 12 as a middleweight, I saw no incentive to fight him. This kid, it seems like he’s got a lot of mouth for a middleweight. I’m going to teach him that he needs to show f–kin’ respect. I’m going to show him f–kin’ violence.” … I’m gonna bring Santos’ head back to London. I’m going to put his head on a stake and let my dogs play with it.”
UFC Sao Paulo will take place inside the Ibirapuera Gymnasium in Sao Paulo, Brazil. In the co-main event, Ketlen Vieira will go one-on-one with former Invicta FC title holder Tonya Evinger. Also set for the main card will be a light heavyweight battle between Antonio Rogerio Nogueira and Sam Alvey. Welterweights Neil Magny and Alex Oliveira are also set to collide. Stick with MMA News for live coverage of UFC Sao Paulo.
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