Athletes
Luana Santos: ‘I Want People To Fear Me’
Rising Star Luana Santos Seeks Her Second Consecutive Knockout Victory Against Stephanie Egger At UFC Fight Night: Song vs Gutierrez In Las Vegas
In August, Luana Santos maximized her UFC debut with a first-round knockout victory – her first as a professional mixed martial artist – against The Ultimate Fighter Season 30 winner Julianna Miller.
What was most impressive about Santos’ performance wasn’t how quickly she got the job done, but how she put Miller away. Santos has finished fights before, but never by knockout. Before she signed with the UFC in 2023, the Brazilian collected three submission victories, two in the first round, in only six professional fights.
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Heading into her debut four months ago, people wondered how her grappling would fare against Miller’s. Little did we know that Santos had envisioned a knockout throughout her entire training camp, and devoted nearly three months to make that dream come to fruition.
“I had a dream debut,” Santos said. “I had such a long time to prepare. I envisioned this a lot. I envisioned getting myself a knockout, something that I’ve never done before. I’ve had TKOs [as an] amateur, but nothing like this in professional [MMA].
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“I trained so hard; I had 10 weeks to prepare, and I kept telling myself the entire time that I was going to knock her out. The fight was good, I felt the matchmaking was great and, again, I envisioned it from beginning to end. It felt like a dream come true.”
This Saturday, at UFC Fight Night: Song vs Gutierrez, Santos takes on a few new challenges. Santos learned just three weeks ago that Stephanie Egger would be stepping in on relatively short notice to fight this Saturday. Not only that, but Santos, whose last four bouts were all fought at flyweight, would move up to bantamweight for this matchup.
Luana Santos TKOs Miller In UFC Debut | UFC Fight Night: Luque vs Dos Anjos
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Luana Santos TKOs Miller In UFC Debut | UFC Fight Night: Luque vs Dos Anjos
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Now, Santos has fought at bantamweight before, very early on in her professional career. The difference this time, however, is Egger’s last two fights were held at a catchweight of 140 pounds and at featherweight. But Santos doesn’t seem to mind. During her fight week interview with UFC.com, the Brazilian didn’t even mention the weight discrepancy.
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“I didn’t have all the time in the world for this fight, and I didn’t have a full camp,” Santos said. “My manager called me about three weeks ago and told me that an opponent could make it, so for three weeks I’ve trained everything I could.”
“I think my debut was very important. It gave me a lot of confidence to understand what I can do. It gave me confidence to see what I’m capable of and for people to see what I’m capable of and to show what I’m all about.”
Egger, like Miller, is primarily known for her grappling. In 2010, Egger won the gold medal in the European U23 Judo Championships. Yet as good as Egger is once the fight hits the mat, Santos believes her opponent’s striking is not up to par.
“I’ve seen all of Stephanie’s fights,” Santos said. “She is an experienced girl; she’s 12 years older than I am, so she was probably fighting as I was being born. I’ve seen that she has flaws, as well, especially in [her] striking. I think that’s what I’m going to do. As experienced as she is, I feel that I can exploit that.
“I believe in my judo, I believe in my jiu-jitsu, and as much as I’ve improved as far as striking’s concerned, as you saw from the last fight, I know that if the opportunity presents itself, I will take her down,” Santos said. “I’ll always be improving and trying to get better at striking. I want to be a complete fighter. I will never forget my judo and my jiu-jitsu. You want to have people fear you for everything. Even though she’s a judo girl and she’s good at jiu-jitsu, she’s not going to strike well. I want people to fear me as a complete athlete.”
UFC Fight Night: Song vs Gutierrez took place live from the UFC APEX in Las Vegas on December 9, 2023. See the Final Results, Official Scorecards and Who Won Bonuses - and relive the action on UFC Fight Pass!
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