If you’ve ever played pick-up hoops, you’ve surely encountered the older gentleman rocking the New Balance Dad Mode 7s and grey track socks that looks like he has no business getting on the court, but he really wants in on the next run, so you let him play and then he just starts schooling fools because it turns out he played D-I ball back in the day, had a cup of coffee overseas, and can still knock down wide open threes and make every pass there is even while looking like the most unimposing guy in the gym.
Leonardo Santos is the MMA version of that guy.
The 41-year-old Brazilian is as mild-mannered and unassuming as they come — a tall, lanky fellow who doesn’t say all that much and fights sporadically but is undefeated inside the Octagon.
Santos, who won the welterweight competition on the second season of The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil, battled Norman Parke to a draw in his first fight post-TUF, and has since collected six straight victories. Included in that last of vanquished foes is Anthony Rocco Martin, Kevin Lee, and Stevie Ray, whom he knocked out on the first round two summers back following a two-and-a-half-year hiatus.
This weekend, Santos makes his quickest turnaround in quite some time, looking to build on his UFC 251 victory last summer in a clash with highly regarded prospect Grant Dawson, who has gone 4-0 since graduating to the UFC roster with a victory on the first season of the Contender Series. The Glory MMA product has been teasing a move up to the 155-pound ranks since missing weight two fights ago and competing at a catchweight over the summer, and now he gets the chance to halt one of the more surprising unbeaten runs in the division in his lightweight debut.
While Dawson profiles as a potential contender down the line, this is the kind of fight where Santos has thrived in the past — entering as an underdog and expected to be a steppingstone for the younger foe, only to dash those plans, usually in impressive fashion.
His unbeaten streak has always been one of my favorite low-key stories in this sport, and if he spoils Dawson’s official move up to lightweight by adding another victory to his current run of success, Santos just might start earning some Top 15 consideration.
