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WATCH: Thiago Santos Knocks Out Jack Marshman With an Insane Spinning Heel Kick

Published 11/06/2020, 2:23 PM EST

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Thiago Santos has been extremely close to winning the UFC light heavyweight gold. This weekend, he steps in to face Glover Teixeira in a fight that will have major title implications. Ahead of the fight, we take a look back at one of Santos’ most vicious knockouts of his UFC career.

The occasion was UFC Fight Night 105 in Halifax back in February 2017. The Brazilian was competing at middleweight back then. On top of it, he was coming off back-to-back losses against Gegard Mousasi and Eric Spicely. His opponent, Jack Marshman, was a former Cage Fighting Middleweight weight who was coming off a successful UFC debut.

Santos didn’t exactly find his footing in the very first round. He took down his Welsh opponent but wasn’t able to pile up significant damage. There were high chances that he was behind on the judges’ scorecards at the end of the first round.

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What Santos did very well was that he gauged the distance between him and his opponent. After backpedaling in front of a more confident Marshman, ‘Marreta’ gave proof of his athleticism with a spinning heel kick that landed flush on Marshman’s head. The sound of the kick was enough to tell that Santos has nearly done his job.

He followed it up with punches as Marshman went to the ground. His opponent seemed to still be in the fight as the referee intervened to give Santos a win and a Performance of the Night bonus.

Can Thiago Santos get back into title contention with a win this Saturday?

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Santos has come a long way from that win over Marshman. He has moved up a weight class and fought Jon Jones to an extremely close split decision loss that could have gone either way.

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The fight against veteran Glover Teixeira will be his first visit to the Octagon since the loss to Jon Jones. Keeping the championship fight aside, Santos has won all his fights at 205-pounds via stoppages.

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The UFC light heavyweight champion Jan Blachowicz viewed this fight as the possible No. 1 contender fight. However, he has now focused his attention on fighting Israel Adesanya. Regardless, given the state of the division right now, if Santos makes a statement this Saturday, he will solidify his position as the next one in line for a title shot.

UFC Fight Night: Santos vs Teixeira- Thiago Santos vs Glover Teixeira: Prediction and Analysis

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Written by:

Rishabh Singh

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Rishabh Singh is an MMA author at EssentiallySports since 2020. An engineer in the making, his love for combat sports began by watching Anderson Silva light people up inside the Octagon. When he isn't busy in his technical pursuits, he is an avid reader with a love for sports in general and sporting history in particular.
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