Edivan Santos Record: 19-5-0

Building a reputation as a finisher

The heart of Santos's resume is a long run of violent finishes. In 2019 he reeled off a string of wins, including a first-round soccer kick of Tiago Florindo and a Kimura submission of veteran Alex Junius, before a busy 2020 campaign that saw him stop Ezio Lucas and twice get past Willian Telles, once by knockout and once by first-round guillotine choke. The momentum carried him to the sport's bigger stages, but his step up came with hard lessons.

Testing the elite

In September 2021, Santos earned a spot on Dana White's Contender Series, where he met Rizvan Kuniev and was stopped by ground-and-pound in the third round – a hard introduction to the level just below the UFC. Two months later he ran into another tough out in Alexander Soldatkin, who finished him with punches in the first round at RCC: Intro 18. Santos answered the way finishers do, returning to his winning ways with a 2022 knockout of veteran Alison Vicente at Fight Music Show 2 and continuing to pile up first-round stoppages through 2023 and 2024, including wins over Oleg Kubanov, Ricardo Silva and Sigmar da Silva.

Fighting style

Santos is a knockout artist in the most literal sense: 14 of his 19 wins have come by KO/TKO, with four more by submission and a finish rate of roughly 95 percent. He uses his enormous 6'7" frame to control range, then closes with heavy hands and a mean ground-and-pound game that punishes opponents the moment they hit the canvas. His length and surprising mobility let him dictate where fights happen, and his Muay Thai background shows in the leg kicks and clinch work that set up his power. The flip side is that against the highest-level grapplers and wrestlers he has been controlled and stopped on the mat, as his losses to Kuniev and Azamat Nuftillaev showed – the chief question marks on an otherwise destructive resume.

Career highlights

• Heavyweight finishing machine — 14 of his 19 wins by knockout and four by submission, a roughly 95 percent finish rate that makes him one of the most dangerous closers on the Brazilian scene.
• Dana White's Contender Series appearance — earned a 2021 spot against Rizvan Kuniev, putting his power on the radar of MMA's biggest stage.
• Signature knockout of Alison Vicente — rebounded from back-to-back losses with a statement stoppage at Fight Music Show 2 in 2022, restarting a run of first-round finishes.