Thiago Santos is recovering from knee surgeries after his fight against Jon Jones at UFC 239. He was fighting with torn ligaments and still went the distance and won the fight on one judge’s scorecards.
Now, the Brazilian says the recovery is going well and focused on getting back to 100 percent healthy. Once he does that, Santos says there is only one fight that makes sense for his return fight and that is Jon Jones.
“If it was up to me, being 100 percent, I don’t like this idea that, ‘Oh, he needs one (easier) fight because he’s coming off a long layoff,’” Santos said to MMA Fighting. “I don’t think it’s needed. But I know it’s hard for the UFC to do that, to come back in a title fight. I believe they would give me a fight and a good performance would earn me another title fight. I believe that’s what’s going to happen.”
Although he won’t fight for quite a while, he still wants the Jones fight to happen as Thiago Santos expects him to be the champion until then. That is until they fight again.
“I think he remains champion,” Santos said. “He remains champion until I come back.”
