Junior dos Santos lost his UFC Heavyweight title to Cain Velasquez at UFC 155 just over a year after taking the belt from Velasquez at UFC on Fox 1. He sat down for an interview with Brazil’s Esporte (translation via MMA.tv):
JC: And what happened? Why did you have this performance?
JDS: Really was my head. I had some personal things going on, a bit of my attention was lacking because of it. And another thing. Soon after the fight I went to the hospital and had a scan, which showed my creatine was too high. The normal level is up to 300, mine was in 1400. I also had trouble in the urine and kidneys.
JC: DId doctors say why this health problem occured?
JDS: The explanation of the doctors is that I pushed over the line, I over trained, and problems could have happened even before the fight… I was so good that I ended up crossing the line. That was the explanation of doctors. Mine is that I was not good with my head, was having personal problems and did not go well mentally in the fight.
JC: Evaluating all this, what will you do differently going forward?
JDS: Going forward I will be more careful, it will take my body to the limit all the time. I need to know how my body is reacting to what I am doing. We need to be a bit more professional about it. I will do tests during preparation. This fight also taught me that we have to be stronger with the head, think things strategy and better monitor the tactical part.
JC: If you can choose, would prefer fight Cain again immediately or have another fight first?
JDS: Actually, I want Cain. I won the first, he did a good job in the second. I think the third fight has to happen. He is the champion and I want to fight him. I know there are people in the queue, Bigfoot and Overeem are. If I have to meet someone before that rematch with Velasquez, I’ll cope. But what I really want is Cain now.
Naturally many fans will immediately turn on dos Santos for this, but I’d hope commenters can appreciate that he’s not making excuses, he’s providing explanations as to what he was going through heading into the fight.
SBN coverage of UFC 155: Dos Santos vs. Velasquez II
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