Djorden Santos reached the head of the game of combined martial arts by becoming a member of the UFC in 2024, and making his debut on a pay-per-view card in Las Vegas sounds unthinkable if you look again at his life forward of Saturday’s middleweight conflict with Ozzy Diaz.
Born in Belo Horizonte, Santos was solely 4 when his mother and father determined to maneuver again to their hometown of Trindade, positioned simply 16 miles away from state capital Goiania. He had a fairly regular childhood for a child with none luxuries, and he adopted the mistaken path early in his teenage years. A supporter of native soccer clube Goias Esporte Clube, Santos rapidly realized it was extra to that than simply watching video games.
“Once I had my first contact with stadiums and soccer corporations, I form of fell in love with it,” Santos advised MMA Combating. “It wasn’t the aggressiveness per se, however going there and cheering and leaping and celebrating and profitable. That motivated me increasingly. And we had wars between native corporations and rivalries happening, and I loved that much more.”
At 13 years of age, Santos grew to become recognized amongst fellow hooligans as one who would by no means run away from a fist combat.
“My mother by no means preferred it, and he or she suffered so much on the time,” Santos mentioned. “It was troublesome for her as a result of I began smoking and ingesting. I beginning doing unhealthy stuff like relying on buses with out paying, different issues that put your life in danger. Soccer corporations are extra aggressive in Goias than in different places of Brazil. Folks take it very significantly. And after I noticed folks dropping their lives, and others struggling severe penalties, I backed away from this harmful path that made my mother unhappy.”
Santos joined a martial arts health club, and it modified his life. He was not “a fats child,” and began utilizing his aggressiveness and infamous preventing expertise in a great way. Then generally known as “Maguila”, a tribute to fashionable Brazilian heavyweight boxer Adilson Rodrigues, Santos instantly fell in love with the brand new sport.
“Martial arts was like a present from God,” Santos mentioned. “Who is aware of what would have occurred if I had stayed there. I noticed unhealthy issues occur to my buddies, and walked away from the corporations and the streets, and shifted my aggressiveness in direction of martial arts from that second on.”
Dwelling in a small city like Trindade, {the teenager} went on-line to see the place could be a superb place to coach martial arts, and have a profession within the sport, and that’s when he noticed Belo Horizonte’s Full Home health club.
“I used to be nonetheless in highschool and advised my mother I needed to maneuver to Belo Horizonte to combat. She simply laughed,” Santos recollects. “I insisted, and he or she mentioned I might go if I obtained good grades at college.”
Santos did his half, and his mom paid for his bus ticket to go to Belo Horizonte. His older brother tagged alongside to ensure Full Home was legit and gave his blessing.
Life wasn’t simple for a 14-year-old residing a whole lot of miles away from his mother and father to hopefully begin a profession in fight sports activities, although.
“I lived in a pitbull kennel that belonged to a pal of mine,” Santos mentioned. “It was a little bit home for a caretaker, nevertheless it was far, distant from the health club. It smelled so unhealthy, and it was inside a favela, so I used to be at all times going forwards and backwards and seeing folks get killed. It was a really troublesome time as a result of I used to be very younger.
“And it wasn’t any simpler on the health club both. I used to be younger, and there have been folks there about to go to the UFC, so I used to be getting beat up each single day. Generally I’d get up in the course of the night time having nightmares, having hallucinations, considering that I had journey a bicycle for 10, 15 miles a day to get to the health club and again dwelling.”
A pal felt unhealthy for Santos and provided him a mattress at dwelling that was nearer to the health club. Santos might now focus extra on evolving as a fighter, and received three newbie fights in 2014. He turned professional and scored a victory in Belo Horizonte, earlier than determined to maneuver again to Trindade.
“My mother despatched me $10 to outlive the week, and I used to be residing on another person’s home as a favor,” Santos mentioned. “I used to be turning into a person now, and it was arduous to see myself in that scenario. I left to Trindade to remain nearer to my mother and determined to stop preventing, however I liked it an excessive amount of to easily quit.”
Santos seemed for a health club within the space that was adequate to renew his profession, but additionally shut sufficient to go to his mom extra incessantly. A Google search confirmed Constrictor Crew, the place the likes of Paulo Thiago, Renato Moicano, Rani Yahya, Francisco Trinaldo and Adriano Moraes began their careers. Santos took a bus, and solely had cash to hire a bed room for 2 weeks, so his plan was to enroll in the group and get a job.
Moicano, a member of Constrictor Crew who had simply opened his personal health club in Brasilia, provided his new teammate a job as a cleaner to assist him earn extra cash. Santos, now 5-0 as knowledgeable, moved full-time to Moicano’s group.
The decision to make his worldwide debut got here in 2019, with Santos taking over 22-fight veteran Christian Torres six weeks later at Titan FC 52, however the journey to Fort Lauderdale virtually ruined his profession. Coaching wasn’t best, and he needed to lower virtually 38 kilos in 40 days — all that whereas nonetheless balancing his profession with a aspect job. On prime of that, Santos needed to borrow cash to pay for the flight to Florida.
He misplaced a call, and mentioned he’s realized so much about himself that night time. Seeing the glass half full wouldn’t make the debt go away, and he discovered himself homeless and broke.
“I used to be going again to my mother’s home once more, I used to be going to stop for a second time, however a pal of mine mentioned no,” Santos mentioned. “He provided me a mattress and mentioned I might keep for a few months whereas I obtained again to my toes. I began delivering meals, driving a bike all day and coaching at night time, all to have one thing to eat and pay for that flight. It was very irritating to see I had misplaced every part: combat, cash, funding, group, home. I used to be like, this isn’t for me. I don’t wish to combat anymore.”
Santos stop preventing. Once more. He saved coaching sporadically, certain, however had given up on making it a profession.
That every one modified when UFC returned to Brasilia for a Struggle Night time. Charles Oliveira was headlining the present towards Kevin Lee, and his longtime pal Moicano was on the cardboard. Santos stopped by the UFC host lodge to test on Moicano and the UFC circus, and determined to present it one other strive. Moicano gave him a ticket to look at the occasion that week, however the COVID-19 pandemic pressured the nation to close down, and the UFC would go on with out followers for the primary time in its historical past.
“I can’t consider it, man,” Santos reacted on the time. “When one thing good is lastly about to occur, one thing unhealthy occurs. Issues simply received’t work. I can’t even go to the UFC as a spectator, man.”
This time, as a substitute of giving up, he used heartbreak as motivation. He was “very fats,” strolling round at 265 kilos, however trusted his supervisor with a path again to the nice previous instances. Santos received two fights at heavyweight in 2021 earlier than going again to middleweight in 2022, claiming the Thunder Struggle belt that might be his ticket to Dana White’s Contender Sequence.
“We bear these fruits right now,” mentioned Santos, who needed to lower 77 kilos forward of his DWCS win over Will Currie. “And now I’m making my UFC debut virtually precisely 10 years after my MMA debut. I look again and really feel happy with the journey I needed to undergo. It was very arduous, impossible, however in my head I at all times felt it was potential. I beat the chances earlier than, and I’ll beat them once more. I’ve a piece to do, and a mountain to climb, and I’m simply getting began.”
