It wasn’t quite the chaotic brawl that “The Brazilian Thor” has been known for showing, but Thiago Santos still pulled off the technical knockout victory over Jan Blachowicz in the third round.
The pair meet at the O2 arena in Prague, Czech Republic, with heavy title implications on the line. The Polish-born Blachowicz was riding a four-fight win streak including two submissions and a decision victory over Jimi Manuwa. Santos was also riding a four-fight win streak, having moved up to light heavyweight two fights before against Eryk Anders. He went on to defeat Manuwa, as well, but by second-round TKO.
Both fighters started the bout off slow feeling each other out. Blachowicz looked to counter, clearly having prepared for the violent brawler we saw overwhelm Manuwa, but instead, we witnessed a patient warrior. Santos remained calm, picking his shots carefully just out-edging his opponent throughout the first round.
The second round was much of the same. Santos continued with the pressure, but Blachowicz never really gave him many opportunities to unload and the Brazilian wasn’t forcing it. The Polish fighter never attempted to get the fight to the ground, where, on paper, he has a distinct advantage with nine submissions to his credit. He remained content to try and catch his foe with a big shot. But Santos continued to outland just by a little bit before the round ended.
Going into the third round, Blachowicz clearly felt unthreatened by his Santos’ lack of aggression and looked to turn up the tempo. He recklessly charged forward with a combo that backed Santos to the fence. The Brazilian remained calm firing off a right hook that landed and then a left hook that dropped his opponent hard.
Blachowicz covered up and Santos began to unload until the ref mercifully pulled him off at the 39-second mark.
The victory is Santos’ second KO in a row over a top 10 opponent, something he had failed several times to do at middleweight. His impressive showings at 205 lbs adds credit to the theory that extensive weight cuts are more of a hindrance than a benefit.
By not putting his body through hell, he has shown more power and durability at light heavyweight. A weight class that he is now stomping on the door of a title shot. With a victory over current title contender Anthony Smith (albeit at middleweight) Santos could make a case for leapfrogging past Corey Anderson for the rematch.
Still, if Jon Jones does what he always does, then Santos’ three-fight finish streak in the division is more impressive than Anderson’s three-fight decision streak over comparable competition. Of course, there’s always the possibility of Jones going up to heavyweight for a super fight or even a certain heavyweight champion deciding to come back down one last time.
If that’s the case, then nothing in the world would make more sense than matching up Santos with Anderson. After all, we haven’t seen him deal with a grappling-heavy attack yet at the weight class, something Jones is known for, and Anderson could e a great test. Anderson, on the other hand, has struggled with strikers of Santos’ caliber, so it gives him the opportunity to showcase improvements as well.
No matter what matchups happen, the light heavyweight division is finally starting to spice up again. With some of these new up and comers growing and developing and savages like Santos hitting their stride, we will hopefully soon see some real challenges to the seemingly invincible king who holds the strap.
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