Junior Dos Santos Eyes Title Eliminator Against Stipe Miocic
Junior Dos Santos has his sights set on redemption as he wants a fight with Stipe Miocic.
As seen in the main event of the main card of Saturday’s (July 15, 2018) UFC Boise (also known as UFC Fight Night 133) at CenturyLink Arena in Boise, Idaho, the former UFC heavyweight champion was able to pick up a unanimous decision win over Blagoy Ivanov.
In the fight, Dos Santos landed more strikes over the five rounds to take home the win on the judges’ scorecards, which put another W in the win column for the future UFC Hall of Famer. This was a big win for him for two reasons – his first win since suffering a knockout loss to Miocic in May of 2017 as that was his previous fight and the fact that this was his first fight in over one year.
JDS had been on the sidelines since he was flagged for a potential USADA anti-doping violation back in August of 2017 and as a result of that violation, he was forced out of his UFC 215 barnburner against hard-hitting and former title contender Francis Ngannou.
After the news came out, Dos Santos’ team clarified the situation by revealing he had tested positive for the diuretic Hydrochlorothiazide in the August 10 out-of-competition test.
Following the fight, JDS made it known that he wants another shot at the former UFC heavyweight champion.
“Everything negative goes away when you get the ‘W,’” Dos Santos said to MMAJunkie. “That would be a good fight, and I want that because I think we deserve it, both of us. Miocic was the champion that just lost the championship with one punch,” Dos Santos said. “That’s the heavyweight division. Sometimes, when you connect right on your (chin), you’re done.
“We’re going to have to wait a little bit now, because Brock Lesnar and Daniel Cormier will fight. We could do this fight, and maybe the winner will fight for the title.”
If you recall, JDS and Miocic have fought each other twice inside of the Octagon as their first fight came four years in a barnburner that saw Dos Santos pick up a unanimous decision win but it will be interesting to see if the UFC books this fight again due to the fact that Miocic will likely be on the sidelines for some time after suffering a KO loss to now-UFC heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier earlier this month at the UFC 226 pay-per-view event.
