Leo Santos training. Photo: personal archives
Although he did win, Leonardo Santos’s last fight at Sengoku Raiden Championship wasn’t exactly what he’d hoped for. With an advantage over Satoro Yamada, the black belt ended up winning by disqualification after taking no less than three under-the-belt blows (see video below). Now Léo has the burly Maximo Blanco ahead of him on October 30, at the 15th installment of the show, in Tokyo, Japan.
“The fight with Yamada was an awful experience the pain was horrible. You get hit and then two seconds later you fall to the ground in pain. Besides that, it’s unpleasant winning like that. Even though I was winning the fight, it seems like I didn’t even fight. But that just gives me more desire for my next challenge, which is really important. A win will put me or Maximo close to the best, and I hope it’ll be me,” he tells GRACIEMAG.com.
“Maximo is a dangerous fighter with heavy hands and is coming off four-straight wins. It’s a dangerous fight; I’ll have to keep on my toes the whole time. I’m going to train to get him into my game, which is on the ground, and get the win that way,” adds the black belt.
Léo knows that a win will put him in line for a shot at the title now held by Mizuto Hirota. He doesn’t know, however, what the organization’s plans have in store for him.
“There’s no lack of good fighters at my weight in Japan, but I don’t know what’s going on as far as a title fight. I don’t know if they’re waiting for Hirota to recover to figure it out. There’s a good group at my weight in Sengoku and I don’t know what they are waiting on to define it. There’s even the possibility of a GP, but up until now, no one has said it will really go through. In the meantime, the siege is closing in,” he says in finishing.
Check out the card:
Sengoku Raiden Championship 15
Tokyo, Japan
October 30, 2010
Maximo Blanco vs Leonardo Santos
Welterweight GP semifinals
Keita Nakamura vs Takuya Wada
Yasubey Enomoto vs. Taisuke Okuno
Asian bantamweight GP
Manabu Inoue vs. Jae Hyun So
Akitoshi Tamura vs Shoko Sato
Shunichi Shimizu vs Wataru Takahashi
Shintaro Ishiwatari vs Taiyo Nakahara
Confira o card:
Sengoku Raiden Championship 15
Tóquio, Japão
Dia 30 de outubro de 2010
Maximo Blanco x Leonardo Santos
Semifinais do GP de meio-médios
Keita Nakamura x Takuya Wada
Yasubey Enomoto x. Taisuke Okuno
GP de plumas da Ásia
Manabu Inoue x. Jae Hyun So
Akitoshi Tamura x Shoko Sato
Shunichi Shimizu x Wataru Takahashi
Shintaro Ishiwatari x Taiyo Nakahara