This is a love story.
To some extent, every fighter reaching one of their goals in front of the world has an element of love to it – love of competition, love of the sport, etc., but Mairon Santos winning The Ultimate Fighter last Saturday in Las Vegas ticks different boxes, and it all began in Duque De Caxias, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the home Santos loved, but had to leave in order to chase his dreams of becoming a UFC fighter.
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It was 2021. Santos already won his first 12 pro fights, but his career had stalled. He had thought his sporting career was going to be on the pitch, but a foot injury ended his soccer ambitions at the age of 12. A year-and-a-half after the injury, he still thought he could recover, but it wasn’t meant to be.
“I was still trying to play soccer, but every time that I would put the shoes on, my big toe would bleed, and I wouldn't be able to kick,” he recalled. “With the injury that I had at the time, not even the best shoes would've helped me.”
Anderson Silva didn’t need shoes to make his particular form of magic, and when young Mairon saw “The Spider” come from behind to beat Chael Sonnen in their classic first bout, he found a new calling.
“I was a big fan already of MMA,” he said. “I watched Anderson and Chael Sonnen’s first fight, and I was like, ‘Whoa, what is that? How can this guy win after getting beat for five rounds? That's crazy.’ So I said, ‘Okay, I want to do something where I can use my hands, and my friend invited me to my first class.”
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Santos was good – with his hands and his feet – and by 2019, he was a pro trying to make some noise in his home country. Before that, though, he met a girl.
Yasmim Bonfim was just 14 years old; Santos was 16, and they hit it off. But to get where he wanted to go in the fight business, he had to leave Brazil, and in 2021, he did just that, moving to Las Vegas. By the time he left, the couple was already married for nearly two years, but Yasmim wasn’t going to hold her husband back. Neither was his biggest fan, his mom, who raised Santos on her own and wouldn’t miss any of his fights in Brazil.
“She's a single mom,” he said. “She lives alone and that was the biggest adjustment for me for sure. Also, when I came to the U.S., I came alone. My wife was here in Brazil. So to have her and my mom there was very tough and I think that was the biggest sacrifice for me.”
Santos’ 12-0 record turned to 12-1 when he was stopped in an LFA main event against future UFC fighter Dan Argueta in February of 2022. A year passed before his next fight, a decision win over Rafael Barbosa, and then his life changed when he got called to compete on season 32 of The Ultimate Fighter. Yasmim had already moved to Vegas a few months earlier, and now all Santos had to do was win.
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So that’s what he did.
The seventh featherweight pick for Team Grasso won his two bouts in the house over Edwin Cooper Jr. and Guillermo Torres, and last weekend, he knocked out Kaan Ofli in the second round. He was The Ultimate Fighter winner, and a UFC fighter.
“It's good to hear that,” Santos laughed, days after the most important win of his career. Now everything’s on the table for the 24-year-old and his bride, and as the couple awaits the birth of their first child in February, he’s already thinking of life as a father and the lessons he will teach his child about hard work and perseverance.
“I think the lesson would be, don't you ever give up,” he said. “Life's not easy, but if you trust yourself and if you surround yourself with good people, you can make it. And I will be always here to support you, so let's go together. I couldn't do a lot of things without a lot of people helping me. I made a lot of sacrifices, but I'll be here for you, so never give up. Trust yourself and keep going.”
Santos kept going, and even when he had his doubts, Yasmim never did.
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“I think she believed it more than me because after the fight she was like, ‘I knew it, I knew it. I always knew that you were going to make it,’” said Santos. “So I think she was more confident than I was. She was just like me, crying, screaming, and it was so good because it's a long road for her, too. I always said to her, ‘One day, I'm going to be in the UFC,’ and she said, ‘Yes, I believe in you.’ And she would always support me when I needed her to help me with a diet, or if I was too tired, she would do everything. So it's her victory, too.”
See, it’s a love story. From Brazil to Las Vegas to the world.
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