Junior Dos Santos: Beating Alistair Overeem should earn me the next title shot
The moment Fabricio Werdum defeated Cain Velasquez at UFC 188 this past June, former champion Junior Dos Santos thought he was a lock to receive the next shot at the title.
Dos Santos made his UFC debut in 2008 as an unheralded heavyweight prospect, but quickly made his impact felt when he bludgeoned Werdum with strikes to get a TKO victory just 80 seconds into the first round.
Werdum's championship win coupled with Dos Santos' standing in the division made the matchup seem like a no brainer to the veteran Brazilian fighter, but alas the title shot never came and the UFC instead opted for a rematch with Velasquez now scheduled for UFC 196 in February.
Now as Dos Santos gets back in action against Alistair Overeem this weekend in Orlando, he believes a victory should seal the deal to fight for the heavyweight title in his next bout in 2016.
"Actually after Werdum beat Velasquez, I tried to convince them that we should fight because Werdum used to say he would like to face me again. It's the rematch that he would love to have is against me," Dos Santos told FOX Sports. "I was trying to remind people but they gave Velasquez the rematch.
"I'm looking forward to this fight and it doesn't matter who wins between Werdum and Velasquez. With this victory against Alistair Overeem, I will be the next in line to fight for the title."
Missing out on the title fight was certainly disappointing, but Dos Santos was more concerned with just being able to compete again after injuries robbed him from doing much of anything over the past two years.
Dos Santos has been a very active fighter for most of his UFC career, but between 2013 and 2015, he's only fought three times total and that just doesn't sit well with him. At 31-years of age, Dos Santos knows this is the prime of his career and there's no worse feeling than sitting on the sidelines unable to accept fights that would help him move forward towards his ultimate goal of regaining the UFC heavyweight title.
"Yeah that was very hard without competing for a long time. Actually, the last two years have been pretty hard," Dos Santos admitted. "In the last two years I've fought just once so it's very uncommon for me and it makes me feel very uncomfortable. That's what I do to live and that's what I love to do so I want to be involved with fights all the time.
"Sometimes injuries they take away from us and keep us from competing all the time so that was very hard."
Most recently, Dos Santos dealt with a knee surgery that kept him out all of 2015 until now but he made the most of his time away from the sport, which included a move to the United States where he began training full time with American Top Team in Floriday.
Dos Santos has trained at different gyms before, but his primary fight camps always took place in his home country of Brazil. This year, Dos Santos decided to make a change and started working with the Florida based team and he couldn't be happier with the results.
Combining his new training regimen with a healthy body and Dos Santos is ready to tackle the toughest opposition available in the heavyweight division, starting with Overeem this weekend.
"I can tell you I'm 100-percent," Dos Santos said. "I had a great camp here at (American Top Team) and I'm happy now because I'm back. It's the most important thing for me, for my life and I have a good opponent in front of me. It's going to be great for me to be competing again and I'm looking forward to that victory."
The fight with Overeem is actually over three years in the making after they were originally scheduled to meet with the title on the line all the way back at UFC 146 in 2012. The fight never materialized and Dos Santos moved on with his career but Overeem continued to bang the drum to make the fight happen and now the time is finally here.
For his part, Dos Santos never really cares who he faces but Overeem desperately wanted this matchup so the Brazilian knockout artist is more than happy to oblige although he's not sure his opponent will be so keen on the fight once they throw down in the Octagon on Saturday night.
"I don't pick opponents. I don't care who's going to be fighting against me. That's the UFC's decision. If they want to fight this guy, I'll fight this guy. Of course he's a tough opponent, he's a very experienced fighter, but for me, right now, my biggest will is just to come back and get a victory. It doesn't matter if it's going to be against him or who it's against," Dos Santos said.
"I don't think I need to prove anything against him. I don't think he's going to add anything else to my career. He's just one more opponent. That's why I say I don't care about him because he's just one more opponent. I think him and some of the guys, they see me now as a gate to the title and that's why they want to fight me and that's why he's trying to promote this fight to happen. So he got the fight, good for him and now we're going to fight and that's the most important thing for me. I want to get back in my winning streak and it doesn't matter who the opponent is."
The main goal for Dos Santos is to win his second fight in a row over a top 10 opponent so the UFC will hopefully give him a championship bout in 2016.
Overeem just happened to be the name on the bout agreement so Dos Santos is more than happy to use him as the example to show who is still the most dangerous and deadly heavyweight contender on the entire UFC roster.
"I'm feeling very confident. I'm always very confident using my boxing and my stand up skills. What I'm looking for and one of the reasons that I came to American Top Team is to get more confident to use my wrestling skills, my jiu-jitsu skills, everything I can use in a fight. I really believe I can knock this guy out," Dos Santos said.
"I have enough knockout power to do that and I'll be looking forward to do that. Of course I have to take care because he has knockout power, too. I think it's going to be a great fight for the fans because two strikers, two heavyweights banging away inside the Octagon will be very good for the fans."
