Thiago Santos: There Will ‘Definitely’ Be Another Fight With Jon Jones
A rematch with Jon Jones would be a “dream” for Thiago Santos and he believes it will definitely happen in the future.
Jones defeated Santos at UFC 239 this past weekend to retain his light heavyweight title. However, it was via a career-first split decision, with one judge scoring the fight in favor of Santos. It was all the more impressive considering “Maretta” tore every ligament in his left knee early on in the fight.
While a rematch won’t happen in the immediate future as Santos requires surgery and will be out for the remainder of 2019 at the least, he wants another crack at Jones — this time at 100 percent:
“Surely a rematch with him is a dream,” Santos told Combate (via BJ Penn). “I want to recover from my knee and I sure want to fight him 100 percent, to see how it will be with me being 100 percent, playing my game, doing what we trained. There’s definitely going to be another fight.”
Many were surprised at Santos’ performance as not many expected him to take Jones the full distance, especially with a compromised knee. And Santos hopes his showing leaves a positive message to people around the world:
“I do not know if I shocked the world, but I think I could leave a message, which is what I like to leave, to pass on, I think the most important thing is the legacy we leave,” Santos explained. “I think in this fight I left a lot of people happy, I spent a lot of this fight overcoming the difficulties. I think I was having a hard time at the beginning of the fight and a lot of people would have stopped there, so at least a good message, overcoming, resisting, you keep trying, not giving up, I think that message I was able to pass to people.“
Jones, meanwhile, has not been as receptive to a rematch.
Do you think we will see a rematch between Jones and Santos? Who do you think takes it the second time?
