Evangelista Santos

From CageWiki

1 Profile
2 Early Career
3 PRIDE and Sengoku
4 Strikeforce
5 Mixed martial arts record
6 Gallery
7 External links

Profile

Evangelista "Cyborg" Santos (born December 12, 1977) is a Brazilian professional mixed martial artist training out of the Chute Boxe Academy.

He stands 5 ft. 10 in. (178 cm) tall and fights in the middleweight division (185 lbs.).

Santos is a Pancrase and PRIDE veteran and currently fights as a middleweight for Strikeforce.

Cyborg is married to highly ranked female fighter, Cristiane Santos.

Early Career

Evangelista Santos made his professional mixed martial arts debut on November 20, 1997 as part of a one-night, eight-man tournament held by the Brasileiro de Vale Tudo organization. He defeated his opponent, Roberto Pereira via rear naked choke submission in 2:37 to move into the semi-finals.

He forced Adriano Verdelli to submit to strikes in under two minutes in the semis before going on to lose his first pro fight in the final against Jose "Pele" Landi-Jons via TKO in 8:18 of round 1.

After losing his next bout via decision to Jorge Magalhaes after an almost four year break from fighting, Cyborg entered another one night, eight man tournament with this one being held by the IVC promotion. Santos defeated his first two opponents via (T)KO in under a combined total of three minutes.

In the final he was again defeated via TKO - this time by Angelo Araujo - in 8:46 of the first round.

He followed the tournament loss with three successive knockout victories - which included one in his Pancrase debut against Osami Shibuya - before meeting Mauricio "Shogun" Rua at a Meca Vale Tudo event in August of 2003. Santos was stopped on punches by Shogun in the first round.

A win in the inaugural Jungle Fight event was the only victory separating the Shogun defeat and three consecutive losses. Defeats to Claudio Godoi, Yuki Kondo and Antony Rea in 2003, 2004 and 2005 respectively dropped Cyborg's record to 8-7.

Cyborg snapped the three fight losing streak at Cage Rage 11 in April of 2005 as he stopped Mark Epstein with punches 2:16 into the first frame.

Three consecutive striking related stoppage wins followed for Santos before he faced off against vaunted K-1 striker, Melvin Manhoef for the Cage Rage middleweight title at Cage Rage 15. In an absolute war, both fighters landed heavy strikes with Manhoef finally knocking Cyborg cold in 3:51 of round 2.

Santos rebounded from the loss by scoring consecutive unanimous decision wins in April and May of 2006.

PRIDE and Sengoku

The exciting and brutal nature of Santos' striking style earned him a call-up to the PRIDE Fighting Championships in July of 2006. He made his PRIDE debut at PRIDE: Critical Countdown Absolute against Japanese Judoka, Kazuhiro Nakamura and was submitted with a keylock in 4:49 of round 1.

A little over two months later at PRIDE: Final Conflict Absolute, Santos earned his first PRIDE win when he submitted Japanese boxer, Yosuke Nishijima with a rear naked choke in 3:24.

The win marked his last bout in PRIDE as the organization would go out of commission soon after and thus Santos moved back to Cage Rage where he was defeated by James Zikic via unanimous decision.

Santos kicked off 2008 in a bout against the highly regarded, Gegard Mousasi for Canadian promotion, Hardcore Championship Fighting. Mousasi made it two defeats in a row for Santos as he stopped him on punches at 3:42 of round 1.

A month later, Santos found himself fighting for another Japanese promotion in World Victory Road's, Sengoku. At Sengoku: First Battle, Santos impressively submitted PRIDE vet, Makoto Takimoto with an achilles lock in 4:51 of round 1.

With the win, Santos earned himself a spot in Sengkou's 8-man middleweight tournament which began at Sengoku: Fifth Battle. He faced Shooto Light Heavyweight Champion, Siyar Bahadurzada and suffered a nasty elbow injury 22 seconds in after defending a takedown that forced the fight's stoppage.

Strikeforce

Santos signed to fight with the US-based, Strikeforce promotion in early 2009 and will make his debut at ShoMMA: Strikeforce Challenge Series 2 when he faces Joey Villasenor in the main event of the evening.