Jorge Santiago
Jorge Santiago | “The Sandman”
Ht: 6’1 – Wt: 170 – Age: 32
Born: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Fights out of: Boca Raton, FL, USA
Team: Imperial Athletics
Overall Record: 25-10
Promotion: Strikeforce
2012 Forecast:
Jorge Santiago’s career may be defined by his inability to find success in the UFC. Santiago went 1-4 in the octagon, but outside of it, he was nearly unbeatable, going 15-1 overall since 2005, his only other loss avenged. That would signal to most that Santiago is a legitimately elite fighter especially considering the fact that he scored finishes over Andrei Semenov, Jeremy Horn, Trevor Prangley, Siyar Bahadurzada, Kazuhiro Nakamura, and Kazuo Misaski. Yet, for whatever reason Santiago has continually fallen short in the UFC. His 4 UFC losses came to top contenders Chris Leben, Alan Belcher, Brian Stann, and Demian Maia. Santiago was the top middleweight free agent on the market heading into 2011. He dominated Japan’s Sengoku organization and defeated two of the world’s presumed top middleweight free agents Kazuo Misaki and Mamed Khalidov. Yet, following losses to Maia and Stann he is one again back on the independent circuit with limited opportunities to fight world class competition.
It would have been nice had Santiago been given another opportunity against lesser competition, but the problem with that thinking was the UFC re-signed Santiago in 2011 to a more lucrative contract than most newcomers receive. Santiago was expected to perform as a top contender, but when he fell short of reaching those expectations, the UFC released Santiago from his contract. Santiago’s conditioning seemed to fail him in his recent UFC run, which is surprising considering the fact that he was coming off a coupld of 5-round wars with Misaki and Khalidov. Santiago will have to rebuild his career on the independent circuit, though Bellator or Strikeforce would be ideal spots for him to land.
Jorge Santiago Fight Record
Overall Record: 23-10
2008-2011 Record: 7-3
2011 Record: 0-2
Loss | Demian Maia | Dec | Rd 3 | UFC | 10/08/2011
Loss | Brian Stann | Tko | Rd 2 | UFC | 05/28/2011
2010 Record: 2-0
Win | Kazuo Misaki | Tko | Rd 5 | Seng | 08/22/2010
Win | Mamed Khalidov | Dec | Rd 5 | Seng | 03/07/2010
2009 Record: 1-1
Loss | Mamed Khalidov | Tko | Rd 1 | Seng | 11/07/2009
Win | Kazuo Misaki | Sub | Rd 5 | Seng | 01/04/2009
2008 Record: 4-0
Win | Kazuhiro Nakamura | Tko | Rd 3 | Seng | 11/01/2008
Win | Siyar Bahadurzada | Sub | Rd 1 | Seng | 11/01/2008
Win | Logan Clark | Sub | Rd 2 | Seng | 09/28/2008
Win | Yuki Sasaki | Sub | Rd 3 | Seng | 05/18/2008