Cristiane Justino Santos

Cristiane Justino Venancio Santos born July 9, 1985) is a Brazilian mixed martial artist and the former Strikeforce Women's Featherweight Champion (Formerly known as Women's Middleweight Championship and 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.


Early life

Cristiane was a national-level team handball player in Brazil before being discovered by Rudimar Fedrigo, a Chute Boxe Academy trainer.

Mixed martial arts career

She made her anticipated United States MMA debut on July 26, 2008 against Shayna Baszler at EliteXC: Unfinished Business. She won the fight by TKO in the second round.

She faced Yoko Takahashi on October 4, 2008 at EliteXC: Heat. She won the fight by unanimous decision.

Cristiane was scheduled to face Dutch submission specialist Marloes Coenen at XMMA 7 on February 27, 2009, but backed out of the fight after signing a new contract with Strikeforce. Santos earned a BJJ Purple Belt under her jiu-jitsu instructor Cristiano Marcello in 2009.

Read More:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cristiane_Santos