Junior dos Santos, welcome back to the heavyweight title picture. The former champion showed Sunday night in his dismantling unanimous decision victory over Ben Rothwell, that he isn’t an old Dos Santos but the Dos Santos of old.
The Brazilian’s crisp movement and relentless output, particularly to the body of the No4 ranked big man, signified a potential career renaissance for the 32-year-old.
Many argued in the build-up that ‘Cigano’ was virtually done as a contender for the belt after a crushing knockout defeat to top contender Alistair Overeem in December.
But during a 25 minute, five-round clinic, Dos Santos looked revitalised in the main event of UFC Fight Night 86, the promotion’s debut card in Croatia. He turned in a performance not seen since his 2013 defeat of Mark Hunt, utilising his boxing fundamentals to pick apart Rothwell, who was riding a four-fight win streak.
The judges’ scores were 50-45 across the board for Dos Santos, who won for the third time in his past six fights.
He said: “I think we did the right strategy. You can’t go against a guy that size, he’s too big. So I used my footwork and my boxing. Forget about jiu-jitsu and wrestling, how about boxing?”
THANK YOU Croatia!! What a great night of fights at #UFCZagreb. On to #UFCTampa! pic.twitter.com/2DbuwLob04
— UFC (@ufc) April 10, 2016
The tone was set from the first round as, instead of the headhunter of old, Dos Santos sucked the life out of Rothwell by repeatedly going to the body with crisp strikes before circling out of danger.
It was a similar story in the second, although, in the closing seconds Dos Santos landed a huge right hand before a front kick sent Rothwell crashing to the deck as the bell rang. There was no relenting in the later rounds JDS mixed spinning kicks into his arsenal.
But there would be no finish, Rothwell’s granite-like chin holding up as he closed out the fifth as fresh as the first – the sign of a real contender.
