Who will win the fight between Santos and Walker?
Thiago Santos takes on Johnny Walker in a battle of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil natives in the main event of UFC Fight Night on Saturday in Las Vegas. The bout matches two of the most thunderous knockout artists in the light heavyweight division, and two of the most unpredictable fighters, period, in mixed martial arts, in a true Brazilian Carnival of action.
Santos (21-9), a former challenger to the UFC light heavyweight title against Jon Jones, is tied for the most knockout victories in UFC bantamweight history with Anderson Silva and Uriah Hall (8). At light heavyweight, “Marreta” stopped three consecutive opponents, including current champion Jan Blachowicz, before his current streak of three consecutive losses.
Walker (18-5) is one of the sport’s most creative and explosive finishers. Now training at Conor McGregor’s SBG Ireland gym, Walker has finished before the limit in all four of his victories inside the octagon, two of which ended in less than 40 seconds with a flying knee and a spinning back fist.
Will Santos be able to stop his slide, or will Walker, who is still 29 years old, begin the rise everyone is waiting for?
Sayif Saud, head coach of Fortis MMA.
How Santos wins:
Santos has a lot of experience. He fought for the title, fought five rounds with a torn ACL and fought well. When Santos is patient, he’s a really solid fighter. He has powerful punches. He’s good on the ground and can be efficient there. But Santos gets reckless at times and dumps the gas tank.
If he can stay away from that and put on a composed fight for five rounds, he has his best chance. Santos has a complete game. Johnny has lost before in stand-up combat. He’s shown a willingness to engage in a wild fight, and whenever you do it at the highest level, accidents happen. You just can’t fight high-level guys like that.
How Walker wins:
Walker’s path to victory is if he can fight calmly and for a long time, and use his jab. He definitely has the ability to catch Santos. If he can keep Santos guessing, Walker has shown explosive power to knock people out in creative ways. He’s the type of guy who can knock someone out from anywhere. If he’s patient and can use his fight IQ, and stays better with his fundamentals and his defense, then he can certainly win. That’s his path to victory, and that can absolutely happen.
X-Factor:
If Thiago fights. We know Johnny can survive fighting, but when we get to the later rounds, there’s a question of whether he can get up if he gets punished. I’m sure Thiago and his team are watching and they know that very well. That would give Thiago control time and nullify Johnny’s explosive punch. Even if it’s just fighting against the cage or in the clinch, anything that can slow Johnny down could be effective.
Prediction:
I’ll go with Thiago, with him hopefully effecting a more disciplined fight and finding a way to win. He’s obviously shown durability. But when he blows up his gas tank and burns it out, he sometimes finds himself in trouble. That would be a problem against Walker. Walker could win this fight, but I have to go with the more experienced guy.
