An agressive Leonardo Santos at Sengoku

By Guilherme Cruz

Photo Eduardo Ferreira

With five consecutive victories in the Brazilian MMA, Léo Santos had the chance to return to the Japanese rings, and came back to Brazil with a controversial loss in the split decision, against Kazunori Yokota. Back to the trainings in Nova União, the lightweight spoke about the return to the Sengoku, promising news for the next challenge, still with no date set yet. "I dominated four minutes and, with one minute to end (the rounds), he came like a crazy guy, made things to impress the judges. I have to become smarter, I can’t accept his game, I have to impose my own, be more aggressive and go over them", said the black belt, waiting for a call of the event to fight this year.

"I'm waiting for the next event. If I win my next fight, is the chance for me to fight for the belt. The future belongs to God. I‘ll train and be well prepared for what comes", said Santos, who believes he won the fight against Yokota. "I don’t know if I felt a little the time zone, but I think I won the fight... I lost the first round, but won the last two, but that defeat was good for me to see that I have a few flaws in my game, and one of them is be more aggressive and fight under the rules", complains, helping the team fellows and returning to the trainings in Rio de Janeiro. "The training doesn’t stop at the Nova União. We have guys fighting all the time, then I'm helping, giving some tips to them, who always helps me too. I’m just maintaining, I’m not forcing anything, and trying to correct some basic things".

THE LIGHTWEIGHTS IN THE BJJ WORLDS 2009

Considered for many years the number one in the lightweights in Jiu-Jitsu, the Nova União athlete commented the battles of the 2009 Worlds, which happened at June in California, USA, and crowned Michael Langhi. "The light category was always with epic battles, only had tough guys... What happens, today, is that everybody is very level and Michael Langhi is with a good tactic and a good game, he highlights on it. He’s with a very good team, which gives him the ideas, and he’s smarter", praises Santos, recalling the times in which he competed with kimono. "It isn’t like old times. The tops were tops, ran over, but Langhi is making the difference in this details. I saw him fighting, he has a great guard, but what is making the difference is that, details”, analyzed the black belt.