Thiago Santos showed a lot of heart in the biggest fight in his pro-MMA career against Jon Jones.
Santos was impacted by a left knee injury throughout the fight but continued to push forward and implement his game plan that had the UFC light heavyweight champion on his heels for the first two rounds.
Jones made a comeback in the final three rounds that earned him the split decision victory to retain his title in the headliner of the UFC 239 pay-per-view event T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Thiago Santos on Controversial Loss
This was a controversial win for the champ as there were many fans who thought Santos did enough despite his injury to upset Jones and win the title.
However, after the fight that saw him have a strong showcase, Santos made it known that he won’t make excuses for not getting the job done in his first title fight.
“I thought I picked more, outpointed him,” Santos told MMA Junkie. “With my knee like that it was about as much as I could do. It was a very tough fight, though. … I’m pretty happy with myself. Given everything that happened I’m happy with myself and the fight I put on.”
“I have the same opinion that I had going into the fight: That he’s a man like any other man and he bleeds, he feels the strikes,” Santos said. “I had good moments in the fight, too, so no, he’s not unbeatable. He’s a man like any other one.”
