BLOOMINGTON, MINN. – Make no mistake about it: If Junior Dos Santosscores an impressive victory over Francis Ngannou on Saturday in the main event of UFC on ESPN 3, he believes he’s earned a title shot.

And why not? A win over another surging fighter, which would give the former champion four victories in a row, is as strong a case as you can make.

But, as Dos Santos (21-5 MMA, 15-4 UFC) explained at Wednesday’s open workouts, he’s been around long enough to know that this doesn’t always lead to the desired result in the UFC.

“Actually, there is nowhere go go after this, the winner of this fight will for the title,” Dos Santos told MMA Junkie. “But sometimes the UFC, they invent some things, you know? but I don’t really care about that. Of course, my main goal is the belt, I want to become champion again, but I’m not in a rush for that, you know? The most important thing is to keep fighting, keep myself active, having like three fights per year, minimum.”

Dos Santos speaks from experience when he makes this mental calculation. He could have sat out a full year when Cain Velasquez was injured in his heavyweight title win over Brock Lesnar. Instead, he took a fight with Shane Carwin in the interim, won that fight, and then famously knocked out Velasquez at UFC on FOX 1 to take the belt.

“The first time I fought for title, I was supposed to fight Cain Velasquez,” Dos Santos said. “Cain Velasquez got hurt against Brock Lesnar, so I couldn’t fight him, he was out one year. They said, oh, you can wait that whole one year to fight him for the belt or you can have another fight. I said no, I need another fight. Then Dana White brought me the chance to be coach on TUF then, then I fight Shane Carwin. So, I’m not going to do waiting for fights, man. I’m 35 year old. The last five years I do fight per year, now I want to do minimum of three.”

That, of course, is all conjecture for now. First he has to beat Ngannou (13-3 MMA, 8-2 UFC). Dos Santos’ opponent has fearsome power, but Dos Santos himself can hit hard, and has a more well-rounded game, which he believes will ultimately spell the difference.

“I never fought him, so I don’t really know how powerful he is. But everyone is talking about him. As I can see his last fights, he has a lot of power. But the thing is sometimes too much power without right amount of control not really good thing, you know? So I believe he has a lot of power but skill wise he is not that level.”

UFC on ESPN 3 takes place at Target Center in Minneapolis. The card airs on ESPN.

For more from Dos Santos, click on the video linked above.

For more on UFC on ESPN 3, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.