MMA Fighting<\/a> going into UFC 323 that 145 pounds was the ideal weight class for him even though he envisioned a future at lightweight.<\/p>\n\u201cI know the UFC hates it when a fighter misses weight, but I don\u2019t think the UFC will force me to move up because this isn\u2019t a recurring issue,\u201d Santos said. \u201cI made my debut early in the year with no problems. I needed the box on the TUF finale, but I made weight. I don\u2019t think the UFC will make me move up, and my plan is to stay at featherweight.\u201d<\/p>\n
Santos also told MMA Fighting prior to UFC 323 that he envisioned a late knockout in the fight, and got it 21 seconds into the final round with a quick one-two combo. He blames Naimov for possibly making the fight last that long, too.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m more of a counter-striker, and I was expecting him to come forward more,\u201d Santos said. \u201cI was surprised by how hesitant he was. He seemed a little scared. When he threw his hands, it was more with the intention of pushing me away than actually hitting me. I remember in the third round, when I stood up from the stool, I said, \u2018Man, I said I was going to finish this fight, I\u2019m going to finish this fight. I need to finish this fight.\u2019 And then I finished the fight right at the start.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now at 4-0 in the UFC, the Brazilian fighter originally planned on calling out David Onama after UFC 323 but doesn\u2019t expect the promotion to reward him with a ranked opponent given his weight miss. Targeting a return to the octagon by February or March, Santos has an ideal foe in mind.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that guy, Nate \u2018The Train\u2019 [Landwehr], is a good fight,\u201d Santos said. \u201cHe\u2019s an exciting guy, he talks trash, and I think he\u2019s not that hard to fight because he exposes himself a lot, and I think it would actually favor me, because he\u2019s a guy who walks forward and throws strikes without setting them up, and that style benefits me a bit. I\u2019d like to fight him.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Maison Santos knocked out Muhammad Naimov at UFC 323 for his first finish since winning the 32nd season…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":335150,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,701,638,82,640,702],"class_list":{"0":"post-335149","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-latest-news","12":"tag-mma","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-ufc","15":"tag-ufc-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=335149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335149\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/335150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=335149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=335149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=335149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}