Mairon Santos ponders permanent lightweight move, used to cut 40 pounds to make 145 pounds

Lightweight may be Mairon Santos' home moving forward after UFC Fight Night 256.

Santos (15-1 MMA, 2-0 UFC) meets Sodiq Yusuff (13-4 MMA, 6-3 UFC) in a lightweight bout, which takes place on Saturday's main card (ESPN+) at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.

Santos, who won Season 32 of "The Ultimate Fighter" as a featherweight, explains why he's moving up to 155 pounds for this fight.

"This fight came up four weeks (ago), so lightweight was the weight that I could make," Santos told MMA Junkie at Wednesday's UFC Fight Night 256 media day. "For me, it doesn't change a lot. Sodiq is a guy who used to fight '45, too. I know he's moving permanently, but all my main training partners are lightweights. I've fought lightweight a lot. I think I have more fights at lightweight than featherweight, so I'm just more excited that I have less weight to cut."

The Brazilian used to face hefty weight cuts to make the 146-pound non-title featherweight limit, which has him pondering a permanent stay at lightweight.

"Like 40 pounds," Santos said of how much he cut to make featherweight. "Usually when I start to text my manager and ask for a fight, I already have to lower my weight – otherwise I can't have a fight. So I start my diet before I have a fight usually, and my last fight I had two months to prepare for the fight but I was already on a diet for one month. So three months was what I needed (to cut weight) last time."

This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: UFC Fight Night 256: Mairon Santos ponders permanent lightweight move

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