It will be ONE Championship’s first global broadcast for 2018. “I know if I win the fight, and get many victories, then I will make the money I need to support my family.TIFFANY TEO AND XIONG JING NANONE Championship (ONE) has just announced a blockbuster main event set for the Jakarta Convention Center in Jakarta, Indonesia. And now, with a colossal opportunity in her first bout with the organisation, Santos has the chance to make an instant name for herself on the biggest stage in the sport. She has made a significant first step by signing with ONE Championship. “My parents are already ageing, and they still work to support me, so I want to reciprocate what they have done for me throughout their lives.” “I want to make money to get them out of here - where we live - and give them a better life,” she explains, saying that she competes to help her family. Her commitment has already taken her to a Salvaterra Marajo Fight Championship, and now she has her sights set on ONE Championship gold. “Sometimes, when it rains, it floods the whole street, so we have a hard time walking.” “There is electricity, but no basic sanitation ,” she explains. Come rain or shine, she does everything she can to be on the mats, even if it means wading through flooded streets to get there. Santos’ commitment to training is absolute. But sometimes, Coach Formiga will pay for a taxi for me so I do not have to go alone.” “Sometimes I have to leave class early because, at night, it is dangerous to go where I live. It belongs to my father, so when he takes it, I have to walk,” the Brazilian explains. Santos reeled off five consecutive wins in 2015 to get her career off to a flying start, but her commitment to learning her craft meant she had to take risks to get home from her gym each night. Santos’ professional career was underway, and she has not looked back since. In April 2015 she stepped into the cage for the first time and claimed a third-round TKO victory. Eventually, suitably impressed by her skills in training, her coach offered her the chance to make her pro debut. That soon led to the opportunity to compete inside the cage, and she started her full mixed martial arts training in preparation for that prospect. She started out learning Muay Thai, then added Brazilian jiu-jitsu to her training when she joined Formiga Top Team. “I went, and I enjoyed it, and I have been here ever since,” she says. The opportunity came in 2013 when she joined up with some friends to try martial arts training as part of a social project. I wanted to be like them, but I did not even know that being a fighter could be a profession.” “We did not have a TV, so I used to watch them at a neighbour’s house. “I used to watch a lot of martial arts movies, and I liked them,” Santos says. It was in Marituba that Santos discovered mixed martial arts through movies, and was inspired to take up training. It was hard work, but the family stayed close and made things work. They then moved to Marituba – the city that gave Santos her nickname – and took in their nieces, as the family unit expanded. “I prefer to live in the city - there are more things to do, and more people to know.” “When we moved, my parents would spend more time with us,” she says. It did not work out well there, so we moved again to Tailândia, and I grew up there until I was 15. So we moved to Concórdia, which was a slightly larger town. “But back then, they would work in the fields since we lived in the country, and they would only come back at night.”Įventually, the family took the decision to move from town to town to find a better life for them all. “My parents were present at home,” she remembers. Her parents worked in the farming industry and the long hours meant the children didn’t get to spend much time with them. Santos grew up with her father, mother, and three brothers in the small Brazilian town of Aurora do Pará.
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