Junior dos Santos: Stipe Miocic Won’t Make Same Mistake I Made Against Alistair Overeem

A few days before his April 10 fight against Ben Rothwell, Junior dos Santos started to feel a strong pain in his right bíceps and shoulder.

“I thought it was due to heavy training,” dos Santos told Sherdog.com this week, “but after the fight, the pain increased a lot and a doctor found that I had a partial rupture of the biceps tendon, and also a lesion on my shoulder. In order to not lose time, I decided to have surgery immediately after the fight in April.”

Following a successful operation, “Cigano” is already in physical therapy and plans to return to cardio sessions as soon as possible.

“My plan was do three fights this year, but I won’t be able to do that. My goal now is to return to training in August and fight again by November,” said the former UFC heavyweight champion. “And I hope, by the middle of 2017, to be fighting for the belt again. At least, that’s my positive thinking.”

Dos Santos also analyzed the current state of the UFC heavyweight division, which recently saw Stipe Miocic ascend to the throne.

“I see the division as pretty open now, with a lot of fights in the coming months, Cain Velasquez and Brock Lesnar returning. But I believe Miocic will keep the belt in his fight against [Alistair] Overeem,” said dos Santos.

“After I beat Miocic, I was really impressed with his excellent boxing, good shape and big heart. Overeem is really experienced and intelligent, but after fighting both, I see Miocic as the favorite. He’s having a great moment and I don’t think he’ll commit the same mistakes that I did against Overeem, like respecting his kicks too much and giving him space like I did. I see Miocic keeping the belt, but a fight is a fight. Of course anything can happen.”

Dos Santos also talked about Velasquez and his big rivalry with Fabricio Werdum.

“I’m curious to see Cain again. I was really surprised to see him getting so tired against Werdum in Mexico City. According to him, it happened due to the altitude,” dos Santos explained. “Let’s see how he will fare against [Travis] Browne. Depending on how he fights, I believe he has a good chance to be next contender, but that will depend on his performance.”

Dos Santos also analyzed Werdum’s fight against Miocic and future challenge against Ben Rothwell.

“In my opinion, Werdum committed a huge mistake in his strategy against Miocic,” he said “He couldn’t exchange punches against a specialist. Even with his striking game evolving a lot, he will never be a specialist. His best game will always be jiu-jitsu, where he is the best in the division. But it’s funny how the world turns. When I defeated Rothwell in my last fight and asked to give him a rematch for the title, [Werdum] said Rothwell was horrible technically and gave no credit for me to fight him for the belt. That’s strange, because now he said after the fight against Rothwell, he wants to fight for the belt again. How come? Against me, he gave no credit and against him, he will give... I don’t understand his point.”

Dos Santos said that, while he is no longer the champion, Werdum would still make a fine opponent.

“My desire was to fight for the belt, but now that Werdum doesn’t have it anymore, he’s not my main target,” said dos Santos. “But, I have to admit, if UFC wants to put me against him, I would love to do that fight once again.”

Dos Santos, who is part of Florida’s American Top Team, spoke about the sudden death of teammate Kimbo Slice.

“It was a big shock at ATT. Everybody liked him over there. He was a very nice guy to everybody, and he had a great relationship with all the trainers at ATT,” said dos Santos. “He was totally different from the bad boy street fighter people see in the YouTube fights. I really wish the best to his family.”