Junior dos Santos: ‘My goal was, and still is, to become No. 1 again’

Despite suffering two devestating losses to Cain Velasquez in less than a year, former UFC heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos (16-3 MMA, 10-2 UFC) isn’t giving up on his title aspirations.

After dropping 2 of his past 3 fights to the rating heavyweight kingpin, JDS still believes that another notbale win could boost him back in to title contention, as he stated in an interview with MMAFighting.com:

“You never know how the division will be in the future. My goal was, and still is, to become the No. 1 again. I will do my best to make that happen as soon as possible.”

He continued…

“I’m taking a time off to relax and take care of my life. I love to be who I am and do what I do, and I’m sure I’ll be back to show my work really soon. I don’t pick opponents, and I will fight whoever the UFC wants.”

“Cigano” met Velasquez for the third time at UFC 166, on Oct. 19 in Houston, Texas, and the fight played out basically the same as their second contest, with JDS getting battered for over 20 minutes.

“I’ve made some mistakes again. My strategy was to brawl because I believed I would be in an advantage with that, but my opponent knew how to block my standup game and do what he does best. After every fight I’m getting more experience and learning. The most important thing I’ve learned in this fight is about strategy, and I believe he was better prepared than me.”

When asked if he thought the fight should have been stopped earlier at UFC 166, JDS responded with the following statement:

“I don’t think the fight should have been stopped earlier because Cain and I were both looking for the victory and defending ourselves at the same time to avoid the fight being stopped,” he said. “And you can see that because the fight was over when I went for a submission and hit my head on the mat. I was dizzy and couldn’t defend myself, and then (the referee) stopped the fight.

“All my corners know me and know how I react in every situation, and I’m sure they never thought about it. I believed in the victory all the time. They also believe that. I’m not against throwing in the towel, but I also know my limitations and I would never expose myself to a situation I can’t handle. I would be really sad if they have taken that away from me by throwing in the towel, but I’m positive that with my team it would never happen.”