Former heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos was in Mexico on Saturday night to witness first-hand Fabricio Werdum claiming the title from Cain Velasquez, and now he’s calling for the next shot at the belt.
“I’m working towards that, no doubt about it,” Dos Santos told Sportv. “I think this result benefits me a little. I can’t say I was cheering for Werdum or Velasquez, it didn’t matter to me. But people were saying it wasn’t the time for a fourth fight with Cain, so I was against the politics. Now, if I’m next on the rankings, I must fight the champion. I think this Werdum win clears up the division and I can get this title shot I want so bad.”
Dos Santos would certainly make sense as Werdum’s next opponent. After all, he holds an 80 second TKO victory over the new champion dating back to his debut in the UFC in October of 2008, and as he rightly says he’s currently the No.2 ranked contender behind Velasquez.
JDS also has a win under his belt against Stipe Miocic back in December of last year, though it wasn’t his most impressive outing and he sustained a significant amount of damage over the course of that five round encounter.
Dos Santos is one of three fighters who appear to be in the running for a fight with Werdum, with the other two being the aforementioned Miocic and Andrei Arlovski who’s been an unlikely success story in the division since returning to the UFC a year ago, racking up three wins so far.
