Junior Dos Santos Wants Deontay Wilder, Says He Can Beat Boxing Champions

Former UFC heavyweight champ Junior dos Santos says he has enough boxing skills to “beat boxing champions” and plans to fight world boxing champ Deontay Wilder.

With just days away from his upcoming bout against UFC heavyweight top contender Francis Ngannou, Junior dos Santos has a lot of things in mind including a future fight with WBC heavyweight champ Deontay Wilder.

In a recent interview MMA Fighting, Dos Santos talked about how this fight means to him and all MMA fans.

“He wants this fight. I want this fight, too. Everybody is talking about this guy and he’s the biggest challenge in the heavyweight division right now. That’s what most people think. So that’s the fight I want,” dos Santos said.

The 35-year-old MMA veteran has kept a humble persona all throughout his career and he respects Ngannou’s power but still managed to maintain his confidence ahead of the fight.

“He has a lot of power. If he connects a good punch on you, you’re out. That’s 100 percent sure. But too much power without the right control is useless. So I’m going to take the best of Ngannou and if he’s not ready to show me his best, he’s going to get knocked out. I’m going to come to knock him out for this fight," dos Santos added.

The former champ also revealed his plan to fight inside the boxing ring with a world boxing champion as soon as he gets back the UFC belt he once held.

“I can knock anyone out in this division and Ngannou is going to be the next guy. I even have enough boxing to beat boxing champions,” dos Santos emphasized.

“I will do everything to win and then move onto the title shot. Back when I was the champion in 2012, I challenged Wladimir Klitschko, he was the champion at that time, and I said I would beat Wladimir Klitschko in a boxing match but of course I’m not a good promoter like Conor McGregor and he got the fight against [Floyd] Mayweather,” dos Santos said. “Klitschko actually replied to me, he said anytime, anywhere, something like that. But then I lost my belt, I lost the fight to Velasquez and I lost the belt so it didn’t make much sense anymore to promote that fight.”

Dos Santos then mentioned who the boxing champ he has in mind to share the boxing ring with in the future.

“I think and I already have this idea in my mind who it could be. It could be Deontay Wilder because everything I see about Deontay, he’s a great champion, he knocks everybody out and he doesn’t run away from a good match,” he revealed.

“He accepts all the matches. Some of the guys pick fights but this guy is not picking fights. He’s fighting everybody,” dos Santos added.

Cigano even noted that he can see “many holes” in Deontay’s game. “I’ve been watching him for a long time. I actually admire him. His boxing skills are different but I think that’s the perfect match for me. I can see many, many holes in his game,” he said.

A few days ago, Ngannou himself has also revealed his plans of moving to boxing soon.