Thiago Santos suffered serious knee injuries in bout with Jon Jones
Thiago Santos’ performance against Jon Jones was impressive, even more so when his knee injuries are taken into consideration.
In the main event at UFC 239 dominant light heavyweight Jon Jones took on the Brazilian knockout artist Thiago “Marreta” Santos in an exciting clash of styles that many beforehand anticipated would give Jones some problems. Those people would seem to have been correct.
Throughout the fight Santos’ power seemed to affect Jones, but it became apparent that Santos had injured his knee. At times the Brazilian hobbled around as his left knee gave out on multiple occasions. Despite the obvious injury Santos kept the fight competitive, and did enough to win on one of the judges scorecards, but at the end Jones won via split decision.
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Brazilian news outlet Combate could recently reveal that Santos sustained extensive injuries to his knee. “Marreta” tore his ACL, MCL, PCL and meniscus in the fight, and will not be able to fight again for the rest of 2019.
“The fight was going exactly as we trained,” Santos said after the fight. “It was a good fight. I was seeing everything, all of his strikes, and was conscious during the fight. My knee really bothered me during the fight. I did everything I could in the conditions I was. It’s a fight. We’re never 100 percent sure that we will win, but I’m satisfied. I left everything in there even after injuring my knee in the first round.
“I fought four rounds on a southpaw stance, unable to move like I usually move, unable to throw the strikes I usually throw. I didn’t shock the world because of those circumstances, but I did what I could do in those conditions and I’m satisfied.”
“I think the fight was really close,” he continued. “I think I hit him more than he hit me, but I don’t know. In the end I was very disappointed for what happened with my knee and that I wasn’t able to give my 100 percent.”
Santos fought five times in 2018, the title bout with Jones was his second fight this year.
