Léo Santos won’t let Tony Martin go 2-0 in his hometown of Rio de Janeiro. The TUF Brazil season 2 champion spoke to Portal do Vale Tudo about his upcoming bout at UFC Fight Night 62. The jiu jitsu blackbelt is eager to finish the fight as soon as possible and wants to avenge the loss his buddy Fabrício Camões suffered against Martin at UFC 179.
"I’m always trying to become a more well rounded fighter. Martin knows the game, he has good stand up and dangerous jiu-jitsu. He's quite the cheeky guy, coming into our backyard and finishing "Morango", who is a dear friend of mine and a legit blackbelt in jiu-jitsu, like that. My plan is simple, I will pressure him all the time. He’s fighting in my backyard and he will feel it. I want a really convincing win now, I don’t want to leave it for the judges", said Santos.
Although the jiu-jitsu blackbelt feels confident, his fighting skills aren’t the only thing he had to worry about. After some struggles with weight cutting in the past, Santos says he has finally addressed the problem.
"I’m losing weight easily now, but right after TUF I had some problems. That place is a madhouse and it left me a little messed up after the last fight, so I let myself go a little too much and then I had a rushed training camp for the Norman Parke fight, so my weight went up once again and I wasn’t able to perform well because of the bad cut. Now I’m following a proper diet and have a group of nutritionists working with me. I only stopped training for 15 days and my weight has stabilized".
Léo Santos vs. Tony Martin will be third fight on the main card headlined by welterweights Demian Maia and Ryan Laflare.