Back in May, Mairon Santos stepped up a weight class and took a huge win over Sodiq Yusuff. After a clean sweep of a formerly ranked opponent, one might rest on their laurels, but that’s just not how Santos rolls. He instead went looking to do some cross training with some high profile gyms. While he may have just been looking for some different looks, he found something much more than that – a new home.
“I went to visit and then I just fell in love with the gym. I decided that my next camp would be with the team,” Santos explained. “So I came back to Vegas to pick up my stuff and then I went back to Brazil like beginning of September. I already knew about the fight, so when I found out about the fight, I just said, ‘okay, I’m going to go down to Brazil, do the camp over there’… so yeah, I’m a Fighting Nerd now.”
The complications of moving his family to Brazil did not make things easy on him. His son was born in the United States and is a United States citizen, which made the whole process that much more daunting. However, when he saw how Pablo Sucupira and gang were preparing, he knew what he needed to do.
“The way they see the fight and I really love striking – they’re very smart,” he said. “The way they see it, it was just like for me, it was very different and I just fell in love with the way that they see the fight game and the way they approach the fight, the way they, they study the opponents. It was just like amazing for me.”
While the likes of Jean Silva and Caio Borralho might be some of the names you think of when you hear “Fighting Nerds”, Santos’ main training partner for this one was a lesser know nerd. However, it is one you might see on the senior circuit sooner rather than later.
“My main training partner for this camp was Icaro Brito. I believe he’s 9-1 or 8-1. He was scheduled to fight contender last year and this year, unfortunately, his visa got denied. But he’ll be in the UFC soon,” Santos said. “The UFC has a lot of interest in him and he was my main training partner for this one. He’s very good on the ground, good striker, and I can’t wait to see him in the UFC – he made me improve a lot.”
With all that solid work under his belt, Santos is ready for his fight this Saturday. In his retrun to featherweight, he draws a tough customer with Muhammad Naimov. However, Mairon knows what he’s capable of come UFC 323.
“My last fight, I was happy with the decision because I wanted to win a clean decision,” he explained. “Now that’s in the past, so I want to win with a clean knockout. I’m going to finish him before the third round.”
You can catch him looking to make good on that promise during the UFC 323 prelims. They start at 6pm EST and air on ESPN+.
You can hear the entire audio of this interview with Mairon Santos on the latest edition of the Top Turtle MMA Podcast. The interview airs at 1:46.
