Jorge Santiago

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

Profile

Jorge Santiago (born x, 1980) is a Brazilian professional mixed martial artist and Brazilian jiu jitsu black belt training out of American Top Team in Coconut Creek, Florida.

He stands 6 ft. 1 in. (185 cm) tall and fights in the middleweight division (185 lbs.).

Santiago is a UFC veteran, Strikeforce tournament champion and is the current Sengoku middleweight champion.

Early Career

Jorge Santiago made his professional mixed martial arts debut at Reality Fighting 2 on November 2, 2002. He defeated his opponent, Jose Rodriguez via submission due to a knee strike at 1:16 of round 1.

In his next two bouts, Santiago scored a 14 second knockout victory over Jay Martin and a triangle choke submission win over Justin Wieman.

At King of the Cage 27 on August 10, 2003, Santiago suffered his first professional loss when he was knocked cold by diminutive Manny Gamburyan in just 21 seconds.

Santiago got back on track in his next fight when he picked up a unanimous decision win over the tough, Derrick Noble. He followed that win up with a triangle choke submission win over UFC veteran, LaVerne Clark.

In December of 2003, Santiago suffered the second defeat of his career, losing via TKO to Keith Wisniewski at an Absolute Fighting Championships event.

Santiago followed that loss with two straight armbar victories before going down via unanimous decision to future TUF 1 middleweight winner, Diego Sanchez.

A rear naked choke victory over Chris Liguori followed eight months later.

In June and August of 2005 Santiago dropped unanimous decisions to Jordan Radev and Joey Villasenor respectively which dropped his record to 8-5.

Santiago stopped the two fight slide in November of 2005 when he stopped Leopoldo Serao in just 43 seconds. He followed that victory with another stoppage over Sidney Machado and then an armbar submission over Thomas Russell.

UFC

Shortly after the win over Russell, Santiago signed a contract with the UFC. He made his UFC debut at UFC Fight Night 5 against Justin Levens. Santiago impressed as he knocked Levens cold with a knee in 2:13 of round 1.

Just under two months later, Santiago was back in the Octagon at UFC Fight Night 6. This time he was opposite TUF 1's Chris Leben who was fresh off getting dismantled by Anderson Silva at UFN 5. Santiago controlled the first round and looked en route to a victory but shortly into the second round he was knocked cold by a Leben bomb.

Santiago looked to rebound from his first UFC loss at UFC Fight Night 7 when he faced Alan Belcher. Belcher used his superior muay thai effectively throughout the bout with the fight culminating in Belcher faking a leg kick and going high, knocking Santiago cold with a head kick midway through the third round.

Strikeforce and Sengoku

After successive losses Santiago departed from the UFC. Four months after the Belcher loss, Santiago faced UFC veteran, Andrei Semenov at Bodog Fight: Clash of the Nations. Santiago stopped Semenov at 4:48 of round 2 to halt his losing slide.

In September of 2007, Santiago faced Jeremy Horn at Art of War 3. The bout marked Horn's 100th professional bout and Santiago ruined the party as he submitted Horn with a triangle choke at 3:02 of round 1.

Shortly after the Horn victory, Santiago was named as one of four entrants in Strikeforce's one night, four man middleweight tournament held at Strikeforce: Four Men Enter, One Man Survives. Santiago faced UFC veteran, Sean Salmon in the opening round and left Salmon out cold and twitching 24 seconds in courtesy of a flying knee.

Later that night, Santiago faced another UFC veteran in Trevor Prangley in the final. Santiago continued his impressive post-UFC run as he knocked Prangley down and out with a knee to the body midway through round 1 giving him the tournament championship.

In May of 2008, Santiago flew over to Japan to compete in World Victory Road's Sengoku promotion. Santiago faced Yuki Sasaki at Sengoku: Second Battle and submitted his Japanese adversary with an armbar in the third round.

Four months later, Santiago entered Sengoku: Fifth Battle as one of eight middleweight competitors in Sengoku's 2008 middleweight tournament. Santiago faced WEC veteran, Logan Clark in the opening round and submitted Clark with a rear naked choke in the second round.

A month and a half later at Sengoku: Sixth Battle, Santiago submitted Siyar Bahadurzada with a heel hook in the semi finals. Later that night Santiago faced PRIDE and UFC veteran, Kazuhiro Nakamura in the final. After a back and forth first two rounds, Santiago exploded in the third round stopping Nakamura with punches 49 seconds into the round.

The win garnered Santiago the Sengoku middleweight tournament and a shot at Sengoku's vacant middleweight title. He would face PRIDE veteran, Kazuo Misaki for the strap at Sengoku: No Ran 2009. Misaki looked to be on his way to winning after seemingly taken at least three of the four opening rounds. In the fifth however, Santiago scored a takedown and transitioned to Misaki's back. The Brazilian locked on a rear naked choke, which Misaki refused to tap to thus sending him to sleep and awarding Santiago the Sengoku middleweight championship.