Thiago Santos Teases Move to 205, Fighting at UFC 230 in New York

Heavy-hitting Ultimate Fighting Championship middleweight Thiago Santos is coming off a hard-fought unanimous decision victory over debutant Kevin Holland on Saturday night at UFC 227 in Los Angeles. Santos looked to have the better of his opponent early on before Holland kicked into gear landing some nice shots of his own. The win was a confidence boost for Santos’ title aspirations after a devastating knockout loss at the hands of David Branch in his last fight.

Santos spoke about his opponent Holland and revealed he’s considering moving up a division as a result of the difficult weight cut to 185 pounds. "Marreta" claimed that his primary focus right now is to get on the UFC 230 card at Madison Square Garden in New York City and that he’s willing to fight anyone to make it happen.

“I was aware of this short window when I took the fight," Santos told MMAJunkie.com. I don’t regret it. I took the risk. I took the risk of fighting an unranked UFC debutant. But I love to fight. It’s what I like doing. I don’t choose opponents. If I’m not injured, I’ll take on anyone. We’ve been thinking about moving up to light heavyweight, but there are some guys at middleweight I want to fight. And some of these guys will be fighting on Nov. 3 and I’d like the opportunity to be there fighting one of them.”

Santos recently revealed that he told UFC matchmakers that he would fight Alexander Gustafsson at UFC 227 if required but said the Swede turned down the fight.

UFC 230 card does not yet have a confirmed main event with the UFC only announcing a co-main event between lightweight contenders Nate Diaz and Dustin Poirier. However the fight may already be in jeopardy with Diaz claiming on Twitter that he wouldn’t be fighting on that card. A middleweight rematch between Luke Rockhold and Chris Weidman is also reportedly in the works