Leonardo Santos was undefeated in the UFC for nearly eight years, but now finds himself trying to rebound from back-to-back stoppage losses to Grant Dawson and Clay Guida as he faces Jared Gordon at UFC 278 this Saturday in Salt Lake City.
Speaking on this week’s episode of MMA Fighting podcast Trocacao Franca, the decorated grappler reflected on how decades of experience in jiu-jitsu, grappling and MMA helped him deal with defeats in a more positive way.
” “It’s something that you learn and you live with,” Santos stated. “You go through different stages in your life, good and bad moments, moments when the loss comes and boosts your energy. And today, even though I’m more experienced, I don’t like losing. It gave me fuel to try to evolve more and get better at what I was doing.”
” I’ve been in UFC since a while and was always winning. But then, when you lose you need to get up, fix it and start winning again,” he said. “I don’t like to lose, I’m not used to losing, I wasn’t born to lose. We stumble along the way and I see it as a learning experience.
“I’m anxious to go back there and test myself again. Although last time was not good, we are used to winning and losing again. Since I was old, I have been competing. The idea is to constantly improve, fight after fight and correct the .”
mistakes.
Santos’ eight-fight unbeaten run in the UFC included victories over the likes of Kevin Lee and Anthony Rocco Martin, but he was on the receiving end of a submission loss last time around, tapping to a rear-naked choke against Guida.
” It hurt my soul but we’re professional,” Santos stated after losing by submission in 20 his first year as a MMA fighter. “I’ve been fighting for a long time. That was something I knew from the beginning of my transition to MMA. It’s not just about grappling; there are punches.
” I’ve seen many men with great jiu jitsu get submitted. If you overthink that you don’t evolve, you don’t grow. I stumbled, but we’re back to the next one.”
The next step in Santos’ MMA career will be in the preliminary portion of UFC 278, and he expects Gordon to welcome exchanges with him on the ground.
“He is a strong guy who likes to stand up on his feet, but doesn’t run from the ground. So it’s an interesting fight for me,” Santos stated. “
That’s something that I can capitalise on. He doesn’t like to stay on the outside just hitting and moving around, he always comes in. He may try to make a change, but I doubt he will leave his roots .”
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