Former UFC heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos will be part of Most Valuable Promotions’s first MMA card on May 16 in Inglewood, Calif., and hopes that beating Robelis Despaigne live on Netflix opens a door for his long-awaited professional boxing debut.
“Cigano” was a very successful fighter in the UFC with knockouts over stars like Cain Velasquez, Fabricio Werdum, Frank Mir and Derrick Lewis, but hasn’t competed in the traditional form of the sport in four years. Since then, dos Santos fought and won twice in bareknuckle MMA, beating Alan Belcher and Werdum.
With MVP making his entrance in the sport in 2026 with a show headlined by Ronda Rousey and Gina Carano, “Cigano” was approached with an offer to face fellow UFC veteran Jailton Almeida. That didn’t come to fruition, and dos Santos instead signed a one-fight contract to battle heavyweight knockout artist Despaigne.
MVP’s ties in boxing, promoting Jake Paul’s shows and a lot more, was also factor that interested “Cigano” when inking the deal.
“That was already with that in mind when I signed with them,” dos Santos told MMA Fighting. “My eyes are on Jake Paul, who’s now fighting at heavyweight too. He was even bringing up the possibility of boxing Ngannou. I think Ngannou regrets not taking the Jake Paul match, and now he wants it. And Ngannou himself, a boxing match between me and him, a rematch, I think that would be sensational.”
“Cigano” has called out Paul in the past, before the YouTuber booked a boxing match with Anthony Joshua, and has lost a UFC bout to Ngannou back in 2019, when the Brazilian was on a winning streak over Lewis, Tai Tuivasa and Blagoy Ivanov.
“That fight was quick and obviously, because of the mistake I made and I paid the price,” dos Santos said of the Ngannou loss. “Credit to him. But I think a second fight between us in boxing would be something really interesting.”
Dos Santos said he would also be interested in facing Ngannou in a future MVP MMA card, but boxing seems a priority for both of them.
“I think [boxing] would even be more appealing and interesting for the fans,” dos Santos said. “Everybody knows the kind of knockout power that guy has, insanely heavy hands. I think it would have a bigger draw in boxing.”
“I don’t know anyone who has more pure boxing characteristics than I do,” he continued. “It’s always been something I wanted. Back in 2012, when I became UFC champion, I was already one of the first guys trying to make that happen. I challenged Wladimir Klitschko, who was the [boxing heavyweight] champion at the time. But obviously it didn’t get the same kind of attention these things get nowadays.”
The 42-year-old veteran said that preparing for and fighting in MMA is more “annoying” because, as a predominant boxer, he has to worry about takedowns attempts and kicks.
“I like more what Robelis brings to the table,” dos Santos said of Despaigne being his opponent rather than Almeida. “I think the fight will be more exciting for the event and for the fans. He’s a very lengthy fighter and obviously he’s going to present some difficulties for me. He’s fast for his size, works his straight punches really well, but I think this is the kind of fight people love to watch, two giants, size-wise, hitting each other and trying to knock each other out. I think that always gets the crowd excited. And for me too. Once it turns into a striking battle, which is what I love doing, it gets me really fired up to put on a good show.”
“I always train everything because this is MMA and you have to be ready for anything,” he added. “One of the main reasons I want to compete in boxing is exactly to avoid some of that. I love striking but in MMA you’re always expecting kicks, takedown attempts, things like that, and it completely changes the game. I’ve talked about that a lot. But anything is possible. Even in my last fight at Gamebred, for the title, when I broke my nose, I went through a little moment of panic, but in this new phase of my life I managed to stay composed. ‘You train breathing through your mouth, so do that now.’ I kept moving forward but I also knew that if I took another shot right on the nose it would get complicated, so I took Alan Belcher down and worked on the ground. Obviously everything is a possibility. I wouldn’t even call it an easier path — I don’t think there are easy paths in fighting, there are smart paths. The smartest strategy is the one where you best exploit your opponent’s weaknesses. And in warfare you obviously have to be ready to do that.”
Dos Santos headlined UFC’s first-ever card live on FOX in 2011, knocking out Velasquez to become the heavyweight champion, and now gets the chance to compete live on Netflix. After 23 octagon appearances in over a decade, “Cigano” feels that MVP can to head to head with the UFC for a slice of the market with Netflix as a broadcast partner.
“I don’t think there’s ever really been anyone capable of competing with the UFC since they took over the scene,” dos Santos said. “Them entering the game the way they are, I think that’s extremely beneficial. Obviously not for the UFC promoters. When you have control, when you’re the dominant player, the one running everything, obviously that has its value, but it also means you need to keep controlling everything, especially the athletes. When one side starts doing things better than the other, the other side speeds up to improve too, and that competition makes everything better. The world is what it is today because of that. I see it very positively and I truly hope they’re here to stay and make a real difference, especially in the lives of the athletes. Overall, I think it’s going to be very good.
“Seeing everything they’ve been doing, the way they’ve been doing it, breaking barriers and being truly open to huge events and all that, it got me really excited and I felt like that’s where I wanted to be. I think energies always end up aligning. It’s a one-fight contract, partly because they follow more of the boxing model. In the UFC, those long-term deals are possible because they maintain a huge level of control over the athletes, so you kind of get stuck in that situation for a while. Boxing is different. Every fight is its own thing. If you lose, your stock drops. If you win, your stock rises. In every next fight you reap the rewards of victory, just like you also deal with the consequences of defeat. I think that’s very capitalist, let’s say [laughs]. You reap what you sow. I think it’s a really cool format. I’m very excited about the possibilities of this crossover they’re doing between boxing, MMA, and even other sports. I also hope they keep pushing hard into MMA because Netflix is a global powerhouse, they dominate worldwide in a very significant way, and I think MMA being part of that is also extremely important.”
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