Thiago de Lima Santos (born January 7, 1984) is a Brazilian professional mixed martial artist.
[6] In early childhood, he suffered from an undiagnosed disease that spawned growing cysts in his stomach, but which were surgically removed.
[6] In one of the occasional floods in his city, Santos' family lost their belongings and after a period of homelessness, they settled in the notorious neighborhood of Cidade de Deus.
[7] In the opening round, Santos defeated Gil Freitas by majority decision to get into the TUF house.
In the quarterfinals, he faced eventual season winner Leonardo Santos and lost via unanimous decision.
He made his debut on August 3, 2013, at UFC 163 against The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil winner Cezar Ferreira.
Santos faced promotional newcomer Steve Bossé on June 27, 2015, at UFC Fight Night 70.
[17] Santos fought Gegard Mousasi on July 9, 2016, at UFC 200, filling in for an injured Derek Brunson.
[22] He won the fight via TKO in the second round due to a combination of a spinning heel kick and punches and picked up a Performance of the Night bonus award.
[25] Santos was briefly linked to a bout with promotional newcomer Michał Materla on October 21, 2017, at UFC Fight Night 118.
[26] However, it was revealed on 1 September that Materla had reneged on his agreement with the UFC and was re-signing with the Polish regional promotion KSW.
[27] In turn, Santos was removed from the card and faced Jack Hermansson a week later at UFC Fight Night 119.
[36] Santos was scheduled to face Jimi Manuwa in a light heavyweight bout on September 22, 2018, at UFC Fight Night 137, replacing injured Glover Teixeira.
[37] Manuwa would also pull out of the bout on September 16, 2018 due to a torn hamstring and he was replaced by Eryk Anders.
[48] Despite the loss, Santos was the first fighter in MMA history to win a judge's scorecard against Jones.
[52] However, due to Teixeira tested positive for COVID-19 a week prior to the bout, the pair was rescheduled to fight on October 4, 2020 at UFC on ESPN: Holm vs.
[65] After fighting out his UFC contract, it was announced on September 8, 2022, that Santos had signed a multi-fight deal with the Professional Fighters League, and that he would be a participant in their 2023 season as a light heavyweight.
[73] Santos stepped in on short notice to replace Sergei Bilostenniy against Denis Goltsov at PFL 4 on June 13, 2024.
[citation needed] Santos runs a non-profit organization that offers free mixed martial arts training for children coming from poor families.