Thiago Santos expected to step in against Jimi Manuwa in UFC Sao Paulo main event

A bit of good news for fight fans in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and anybody that was planning on watching the September 22 UFC Sao Paulo card. Days after Glover Teixeira was forced out of his main event battle with Jimi Manuwa, the UFC has found a replacement opponent for Manuwa: middleweight contender Thiago Santos. The bout will occur at light heavyweight.

This bout was confirmed by Chamatkar Sandhu of ESPN after Ariel Helwani reported it as a possibility.

Update on this:
Sources tell me Jimi Manuwa has signed his bout agreement to fight Thiago Santos. https://t.co/UmEg974paS

— Chamatkar Sandhu (@SandhuMMA) August 17, 2018

Jimi Manuwa last fought in March, when he lost an action packed decision to surging Polish contender Jan Blachowicz. In his next most recent bout, which occurred in July of 2017, he was knocked out by Swiss contender Volkan Oezdemir. These losses were preceded by back-to-back knockouts of dangerous contenders Corey Anderson Ovince Saint Preux. Manuwa is 17-4 overall.

Thiago Santos, meanwhile, last fought at UFC 227 on August 4, when he defeated Kevin Holland by unanimous decision. With this win, he rebounded from a knockout loss to former World Series of Fighting champion David Branch. He’s 18-6 overall.

If this bout is indeed a go, here’s the UFC Sao Paulo lineup as it now stands:

Jimi Manuwa vs. Thiago Santos
Ketlen Vieira vs. Tonya Evinger
Antonio Rogerio Nogueira vs. Sam Alvey
Antonio Carlos Junior vs. Elias Theodorou
Renan Barao vs. Andre Ewell
Alex Oliveira vs. Neil Magny
Sergio Moraes vs. Ben Saunders
Thales Leites vs. Hector Lombard
Francisco Trinaldo vs. Evan Dunham
Elizeu Zaleski vs. Belal Muhammad
Livia Renata Souza vs. Alex Chambers
Luiz Henrique vs. Ryan Spann

Who do you think comes out on top in UFC Sao Paulo’s new Jimi Manuwa vs. Thiago Santos main event? What do you think of the fight?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 8/17/2018.