5 Defining Moments: Taila Santos

Taila Santos has but one more impediment to negotiate.

The 31-year-old Brazilian will toe the line against undefeated American Top Team standout Dakota Ditcheva when their million-dollar Professional Fighters League women’s flyweight final serves as the PFL 2024 Season Championships co-headliner on Friday at King Saud University Stadium in Riyadh, Saudia Arabia. Santos enters the cage on the strength of a three-fight winning streak. In 25 career appearances, she has never been finished.

As Santos approaches her high-stakes showdown with Ditcheva at 125 pounds, a look at five of the many moments that have come to define her:

1. Closing Argument

Santos polished off her unblemished regional career in style when she put away Laisa Combra with a punch to the body and laid claim to the Aspera Fighting Championship women’s bantamweight crown in the first round of their AFC 43 co-feature on Aug. 13, 2016 at lbertina Salmon Municipal Gymnasium in Paranagua, Brazil. The end came 1:27 into Round 1. It moved Santos to 14-0 with 12 finishes, 11 of them inside one round, and set the stage for her eventual call to the big leagues. After a two-year layoff, she returned to post a unanimous decision over Estefani Almeida on the Brazilian iteration of Dana White’s Contender Series, earning an Ultimate Fighting Championship contract in the process.

2. A Not-So-Warm Welcome

American Top Team’s Mara Romero Borella export spoiled the promotional debut of the previously unbeaten Santos when she eked out a split decision as part of the UFC Fight Night 144 undercard on Feb. 2, 2019 at Centro de Formacao Olimpica do Nordeste in Fortaleza, Brazil. All three members of the cageside judiciary struck 29-28 scorecards: Hallison Pontes and Joseph Terrell for Borella, Chris Lee for Santos. Neither woman did much to distinguish herself. Borella did her best work in close quarters, particularly in the first and second rounds. The Italian answered a Santos takedown with one of her own and pursued a plodding clinch in an effort to neutralize her opponent’s advantages in the standup department. Santos hit her stride in the third round, where she fired off a consistent jab, chipped away with punching combinations and snuck in the occasional low kick. Her efforts fell short.

3. Soul to Squeeze

Santos submitted Syndicate MMA’s Joanne Wood with a rear-naked choke in the first round of their featured UFC Fight Night 198 attraction on Nov. 20, 2021 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. Wood raised the white flag of surrender 4:49 into Round 1. A short-notice replacement for Alex Grasso, Santos successfully navigated the Scotswoman’s often-mesmerizing labyrinth of jabs and front kicks, closed the distance and let her fast, powerful hands do the rest. She decked Wood with a thudding overhand right, climbed to a seated mount and hunted avenues for the finish. After returning to her feet, Santos floored her counterpart a second time with hooks from both hands, moved to the back, cut loose with hammerfists and ultimately forced her to go belly down. From there, the Brazilian continued to apply her ground-and-pound, slid her arms into place for the choke and prompted the tapout from Wood.

4. Narrow Miss

Valentina Shevchenko retained the undisputed women’s flyweight championship with a contentious split decision over Santos in the UFC 275 co-main event on June 12, 2022 at Singapore Indoor Stadium in Kallang, Singapore. Judge David Lethaby scored it 48-47 for Santos, while Howard Hughes and Clemens Werner saw it 48-47 and 49-46 for Shevchenko. Santos exceeded even the most optimistic expectations. She steered clear of danger on the feet throughout the first two rounds and took down Shevchenko on multiple occasions, all while advancing to her back and threatening with cranks and chokes. However, the tide started to shift in Round 3, where the champion benefitted from an inadvertent clash of heads that resulted in serious swelling around Santos’ right eye. Shevchenko used the challenger’s brush with misfortune against her in the fourth and fifth rounds, firing left hands and kicks to her compromised side. Santos fought through the adversity but could not reclaim the momentum she once held. Shevchenko secured a takedown midway through Round 5, progressed to half guard and shut down the Brazilian’s bids to escape.

5. Purse Strings

Santos secured her ticket to the Professional Fighters League women’s flyweight championship with a unanimous decision over current Bellator MMA titleholder Liz Carmouche in their three-round PFL 7 semifinal on Aug. 2, 2024 at Nashville Municipal Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee. All three cageside judges scored it 29-28. Carmouche did all she could to overcome a failed weight cut, as she employed a grimy clinch, applied consistent pressure and completed multiple takedowns. Santos maintained her focus and racked up points with opportunistic grappling—she advanced to the Louisianan’s back in the first round and threatened with a rear-naked choke—and clean combination punching. The Brazilian twice snapped back Carmouche’s head with sharp one-twos in the middle stanza. “Girl-Rilla” answered with aggression and two more takedowns against Santos across the final five minutes, but the finish she needed was nowhere to be found. The setback was the first for Carmouche since Aug. 10, 2019 and snapped her career-best nine-fight winning streak.