Las Vegas, NV – After dealing with plenty outside of the cage with injuries UFC welterweight Santiago Ponzinibbio snapped a two-fight losing streak when he finished Alex Morono at UFC 282 on Saturday night.
“I feel great man. Too many crazy things, you know? Change the opponent, change the weight, change too many things. I’m coming back here (from) so many injuries, I need to wait for so long. A little (stressful of a) week,” Ponzinibbio told Cageside Press among other media at his post-fight scrum.
Ponzinibbio (29-6) was originally scheduled to face former welterweight champion Robbie Lawler at UFC 282. Lawler unfortunately withdrew from the fight due to injury, and Morono stepped in to take his place.
“Of course I (didn’t) prepare for him. (It took) a little time to read him,” he said.
The first two rounds saw Ponzinibbio having to adjust his game plan on the fly with Morono being a very different style opponent.
“I prepared for a southpaw for a guy that uses more boxing that (has) different movement. This guy moves more, kicks, have more jiu jitsu, he’s different,” said Ponzinibbio.
Going from fighting a former champion to taking on an up-and-comer wasn’t a huge deal for Ponzinibbio when he took into consideration the momentum Morono brought to the fight.
“If you’re talking about the names of course Lawler is a bigger name, he’s a legend. But if you’re talk the momentum this kid have better momentum. He won 8 of last 10 fights in UFC, four in a row. Robbie is not coming the same way,” he said.
The fight was also supposed to be at 170 pounds, but with Morono coming in on short notice a catchweight of 180 pounds was agreed to.
In between the second and third rounds Ponzinibbio’s corner let him know that he likely lost the first two rounds and would need to pull off a finish if he wanted to win the fight.
“Going into the third round my corner told me probably we lose the two rounds you need to do something. I go forward, I tried to put my right hand, and thank God I take it,” he said.
“I believe more in myself. I believe I’m big heart. You know I have the capacity to do the things and I prove to me one more time that I can do that.”
Now that the fight is over Ponzinibbio looks ahead to the next challenge.
“Brother, I don’t know. This kid come in very well. 8 victories in 10 fights in UFC is not everyone. I think I proved to the world I can stay with the top 10. I try to take any challenge there. I have a lot of exciting fights,” Ponzinibbio said.
“We will see what happens. Maybe top 10, I wish. If not, to be honest, I don’t want to have too much time waiting. I want to take a fight soon.”
Watch the entire post-fight scrum with Santiago Ponzinibbio above.
