Thiago Santos releases first statement following his unanimous decision loss to Magomed Anakalaev at UFC Vegas 50
The past couple of months have been harsh on Brazilian light heavyweight Thiago Santos. Having lost the last four of his five fights, he finds himself in a tight corner in his career inside the UFC.
Although Santos had his moments in the fight, it wasn’t even remotely close to the best of him. Once a light heavyweight title challenger, he has since struggled to return to the form that had him almost defeating Jon Jones back in 2019.
He took to Instagram to release a statement and reach out to his fans. Santos captioned the post,
‘No words about yesterday, no excuses, another hard and painful defeat.
Still, my faith in God remains unshakable and my gratitude to him, my family, my friends, coaches and true fans only increases, thank you for everything.’
The silver lining of his last outing can be that he landed the biggest moment of the fight in the second round, but failed to maximize the damage. He needs to take some time off and reflect on his path forward.
Magomed Anakalaev eyes a title shot next- not interested in a fight against Anthony Smith
Once regarded as the dark horse of the division, Magomed Ankalaev has slowly turned to become a favorite to contest for the UFC light heavyweight championship. The coveted ‘Master of Sports’ in combat sambo has been on a rampage with his eight-fight win streak.
At the UFC Vegas 50 main event fight against Thiago Santos, Ankalaev staked his claim at the next title shot, with a unanimous decision victory. The Dagestani wasn’t really impressed with his performance, but felt like the fight builds up his momentum moving closer to title contention.
He said, “I am happy that I won. To be honest, it is what it is. We expected him to move forward for the whole fight and to catch him on his mistakes, but he preferred to move backwards. That’s why I preferred to strike with him.
“To be honest, I’m not glad with my performance totally, because I expected him to make an entertaining fight, to strike more, but it is what it is.”
He was quite vocal about being the next in line to face Glover Texeira and said, “In my opinion, I deserve the title shot next. Because I am on an eight-fight winning streak and some of the fights I finished the guys, and I feel I’m ready.”
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