Out of the Sky into the Octagon at UFC239
Thiago Santos has been jumping in and out of danger since his early teens.
Inspired by Rambo movies this man wanted to be a complete soldier.
And so, when he turned 18 he enlisted into the Brazilian army as a paratrooper as part of the airborne brigade.
It is safe to say that he doesn’t have a fear of heights neither does he fear how far his courage will take him even if it is against the greatest mixed martial arts talent that the world has ever seen.
At the open works outs we have become used to seeing Jon Jones prefer to conduct Q & A’s, sign autographs and make selfies with his fans rather than risk giving any tell tell signs of what we can expect from him this Saturday night at the T-Mobile Arena in Paradise, Nevada where the action will go down for UFC239.
Santos at 35 and a career spanning a decade surprisingly has not been involved in any 5 round wars where as his opponent Jones has gone the distance in 6 of his.
In the Q & A in Vegas Jon said this may very well serve as an advantage point for his team as it is noted that the former Brazilian paratrooper likes to come out fast with those bespoke sledge hammer kicks that are crippling to the core and have ended the night early for several of his opponents followed up with huge KO punches.
Jon believes KO power is more about precision than power and has referenced his petite wife and that almost anyone has the ability to KO someone if given the opportunity to land a clean strike on the face.
From the hard hitting Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson to the Dragon Machida’s allusive footwork and point striking, no one past or present has yet been able to plant that type of haymaker upon him. Even Alexander Gustafsson who sent him to the hospital after their first encounter at UFC165 fell short in taking Jones out. Daniel Cormier landed several uppercuts from hell in the clinch with Jones in both of their encounters and still came up short. It is safe to safe that Jon Jones takes very little damage but inflicts a lot of it himself.
And is that not the blueprint that Jon has laid out for all fighters to learn from and be inspired by?
Take as little damage as possible and avoid the very entertaining phone booth, skull numbing fests that sends the fans into a frenzy but takes years off your long term health and athletic career.
Dana White was adamant that in protecting his cash cow McGregor that a third 5 round trilogy fight with Nate Diaz was something he was keen to avoid as there are only so many 5 round wars you can be apart of until they start negatively affecting your longevity.
Jon Breaks Down Thiago Santos at Q & A
Jon took a very philosophical view in his break down of Santos’s skill set and made it very public that he is prepared for every eventuality whether it be fast or slow and claims that if Santos goes for broke in the first two rounds he doesn’t believe he will have the cardio, especially upon hearing the rumours that he has bulked up with extra muscle with his move from 185lb to 205lb. However , Jon had a warning for Santos, citing his fight with OSP at UFC197 where the extra muscle mass he put on before that fight caused him to have serious cardio problems.
Even Daniel Cormier had some winning advice for Santos this week speaking with MMAJunkie:
“I think Santos needs to go in there and fight his fight.
“Don’t think about what he has to do different than everybody else, what he needs to do to be better. Just fight your fight. Don’t worry about all that other stuff. All that other stuff is just white noise. Worry about Thiago Santos and give yourself a chance. It’s a tall order for him. It’s gonna be a tough fight for him.”
Santos the man
A man who has jumped out of helicopters into war zones is not a man who is short on discipline or preparation.
Santos has a black belt in Muay Thai, a Black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and so the obvious question is what went wrong at 185 that he now believes will result in him walking away with the 205lb crown this weekend?
Personally, I believe more and more fighters are now realizing there is no longer any point in depleting yourself by 20–30lbs especially when it is the brain that takes the longest to re-hydrate during a weight cut and not your internal organs.
Fighting as close to your walk around weight and avoiding unhealthy damage due to severe weight cuts has to be the sensible way forward. There is no point in losing all your hair and ageing ten years just to make a weight cut work.
Chivunk and Santos
Though Santos has been described as a wild man who will swing for the bleachers and with reckless abandonment, he believes that he can draw strength from what his fellow paratroopers call Chivunk.
Santos says most human beings discover Chivunk when they are fatigued and their bodies are at the point of complete collapse.
He said it is at this point that most people believe this is the end but it is not.
He said you still have 30% left and Paratroopers find it within themselves where everyone else would quit and completely give up.
Most humans have never been pushed to such extremes that Santos is speaking about but he is well aware that in a 5 round fight he could be pushed to the point that most men will quit. Don’t expect him to quit, but expect him to find that 30% to bring him through to the end.
The action goes down this Saturday and so there remains only one last question: Will you be a witness?
