Junior dos Santos (photo via UFC)

By FCF Staff

As Junior dos Santos prepares to battle Ben Rothwell at UFC Fight Night 86, his longtime coach is reminding “Cigano” of how dangerous and important his boxing skills are.

Dos Santos will battle Rothwell on April 10th, at the UFC’s first card ever in Zagreb, Croatia. Recently renowned coach, Luiz Dorea, reported to Sherdog.com that he’s headed from Brazil to the U.S. to train with dos Santos. Dos Santos has trained with Dorea for years, but more recently, he’s been spending more time training with Nova Uniao and American Top Team.

During the interview, Dorea had this to say about the boxing pedigree of JDS:

“I understood his decision to improve his jiu-jitsu skills and spend time with master [Andre] Pederneiras at Nova Uniao, one of the most respected MMA teams in the world, and also when he moved to Florida to train with another MMA power, ATT. But he can never forget that the main technique that made him a UFC heavyweight champion was boxing, and we are here to help in that matter.”

Dos Santos is coming off a stoppage loss to Alistair Overeem in December, after earning a decision win over Stipe Miocic.

Rothwell, meanwhile, is coming off a submission win over Josh Barnett and has won four in a row.