Thiago Santos is yet to make his PFL debut but already has ambitious plans as he wants to become a two-weight world champion.
Santos, 39, takes on Rob Wilkinson tonight in the opening round of the PFL's light-heavyweight regular season. Wilkinson is the reigning 205lb champion as the Australian knocked out Omari Akhmedov in last year's final to capture $1million in prize money. UFC veteran Santos, who took Jon Jones to the only split decision of his career in 2019, has admitted that heavyweight is in his future plans as cutting down to 205lb has become more of a struggle with age.
"Why not? It's absolutely possible," Santos said of a heavyweight move to Mirror Fighting. "Light-heavyweight is still my division but it's never easy to make the weight. I can fight in the heavyweight division too, I'm 39 years old and each time is getting harder to cut the weight down. I'm heavy now and I've been thinking a few times about moving to heavyweight, but I want to start this year at light-heavyweight and then next year we will see."
Are you excited to watch Thiago Santos' PFL debut? Let us know in the comments section below
Wilkinson is unbeaten since going 0-2 in the UFC and all of his wins in the PFL last year came by knockout. Santos said of his opponent: "Rob is a tough opponent, but I have been fighting tough opponents all my life. I'm very excited to start my journey in PFL against the last champion, it couldn't be any better to start against the best light-heavyweight on the roster.
"I leave the study of my opponent to my coaches but he is a strong and tough guy who has good boxing, his wrestling is also good too. Sometimes he uses it against the fence to wear his opponent down. He is well-rounded but I'm prepared for everything in this fight, I predict fireworks."
Santos has failed to return to winning ways ever since his defeat to Jones three years ago, losing all but one of his last five fights. The Brazilian tore four knee ligaments during his loss to 'Bones' but has refuted that his severe injuries are the reason for his past defeats, insisting that other factors have also come into play.
"I can't find one point [why I lost] because a fight is a fight," Santos added. "Good for my opponents because they prepared better and fought better than me on those nights. I'm able to do everything now, even my spinning back kicks. In sport it's hard to plan your future, but I think I have three more years fighting so I want to enjoy these next three years."
