Cristiane Justino Venancio Santos is a Brazilian mixed martial artist and the Strikeforce Women's Middleweight Champion (Strikeforce Women's Middleweight division is 145 lbs; formerly known as the Women's Lightweight Championship). Santos won the title on August 15, 2009 by defeating Gina Carano via TKO. She lives in San Diego where she trains and teaches at The Arena, one of the premier MMA gyms in the United States.
Santos is currently the #1-ranked pound-for-pound female MMA fighter in the world by MMARising.com and the #1-ranked 145-pound female fighter according to the Unified Women's MMA Rankings.
She later signed to fight for Strikeforce, which greatly increased the chance that a fight with Gina Carano would take place. In her Strikeforce debut, Santos faced Hitomi Akano on April 11, 2009 at Strikeforce: Shamrock vs. Diaz. Santos came in six pounds overweight for the fight. Akano originally rejected the fight due to Santos failing to make weight but later accepted the fight. Santos defeated Akano by TKO in the third round.
Santos fought Gina Carano on August 15, 2009 at Strikeforce: Carano vs. Cyborg for the Women's Middleweight Championship (145 lbs). Santos won via TKO at 4:59 of the 5:00 first round. The card was the first time that a major promotion had featured a main event between women. After the match, Santos hugged Carano, and stated in her interview that she had the utmost respect for Carano, and that it was an honor to fight her.
Santos next defended her title against Dutch standout Marloes Coenen at a Strikeforce event on January 30, 2010. Santos won the fight via TKO at 3:40 of round 3.
Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker stated that the next challenger for Santos would most likely be Erin Toughill. However, Toughill later announced her intentions to leave Strikeforce and plans for the fight with Santos were cancelled.
On April 7, 2010, Coker stated that Santos would fight again in June. She faced Jan Finney at Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Werdum and won the fight via KO in the second round.
stats
Born : Cristiane Justino Venancio
July 9, 1985 (1985-07-09)
Other names : Cyborg
Nationality : Brazilian
Height : 5 ft 8 in (1.73 m)
Weight : 144.5 lb (65.5 kg; 10.32 st)
Style : Muay Thai, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
Fighting out of : San Diego, California, United States
Team : Chute Boxe Academy
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