Junior Dos Santos predicts his opponent ‘will get knocked out’ at UFC 252
This Saturday night will be a huge night for heavyweights. UFC 252 is headlined by Stipe Miocic and Daniel Cormier for the undisputed UFC heavyweight title. The fight will determine who is the greatest UFC heavyweight of all time.
You can’t have a conversation about UFC’s greatest heavyweights without mentioning Junior Dos Santos. Junior is at a crossroads at UFC 252, as his fight against Jairzinho Rozenstuik will mark the first time Dos Santos is not featured in the main event or co-main event in over a decade.
The former champion is all smiles no matter what and is ready to get back into the octagon.
“It was always my intention to come back as soon as possible since the last result was negative, but this pandemic kind of made it impossible to happen, and that was really heavy for me,” dos Santos said in an interview with MMA Fighting.
“Having to absorb an unwanted result and not being able to do anything about it sucks. You feel powerless, you know? It sucks, it’s bad, but the good thing is — let’s focus on the good things here — I got to spend more time with my family and my kids at home, and I can’t explain how valuable that is.
That’s what matters the most in my life, and it brought me happiness and pleasure. Everyone around me saw that this time I got to spend with my family was great.”
His opponent is coming off a loss but Dos Santos is confident that “it’s going to be a great fight.”
“Jairzinho came out with this negative result in his last fight, a super fast fight, he didn’t fight, really, so he’s definitely hungry for the victory as I am,” he said. “It will definitely be two heavyweight strikers going for the knockout at all times. I have no doubt that someone will get knocked out, and based on the work we’ve done, it’s going to be him.”
Dos Dantos addressed his critics who think he can no longer hang in there amongst the UFC’s top heavyweights.
“People say I’m not the same anymore, and I’m not,” he said. “Things evolve, things happen, things change. I’m in the UFC for more than a decade, I’m in the top-five for more than a decade, and that means a lot to me. It’s a huge experience.
I’m a top-five since the beginning of my (UFC) career and I’ll continue that way. The goal is to become the No. 1. I have no doubt it can happen and it will happen.
“It’s about adapting. We have to adapt to the scenario and work our strategy better to be able to impose our skills to make sure everything happens the way we want. It’s a mix of your mental and physical. The physical is wonderful, brother.
The mental, I’ve been working that a lot to stay on the right track as well. With both in sync, I have everything to become the champion of the world and stay there for a long time.”
