The lowdown<\/p>\n
Russian. Thirty-six. Born in Murmansk, a port city sitting above the Arctic Circle, and these days training out of Coconut Creek in Florida. Answers to \u201cFoxy\u201d. An MMA record of 17-8 with one no contest, seven of those wins by knockout.<\/p>\n
She was the Invicta FC Bantamweight Champion before the UFC came calling, and when it did, the call was for a Featherweight title fight against the most feared woman in the sport. Taekwondo black belt. Former Russian Muay Thai champion. Mother of two. Retired once, at 23, and stayed retired for the best part of four years.<\/p>\n
Murmansk, then the boxing gym<\/p>\n
Yana Kunitskaya was born on 11 November 1989 into a household that already understood competition. Her mother Olga was a professional gymnast. Her father Joseph was a pro skier. Her younger sister Victoria grew up in the same environment.<\/p>\n
Taekwondo came first, in preschool, which is early even by Russian standards. By 12 she was competing in hand-to-hand combat, the old Soviet-era discipline that has funnelled fighters into MMA for decades. At 16 she left the far north for St Petersburg, enrolled at the Lesgaft National State University of Physical Education and joined its boxing team. At 18 she started training MMA.<\/p>\n
The trophies stacked up along the way. Russian taekwondo champion in 2007. Russian Muay Thai champion in 2011.<\/p>\n
Her pro debut came on 23 May 2009 in Poland, a first-round TKO of Magdalena Jarecka. Eighteen months later she walked into M-1 Challenge 22 as the underdog against unbeaten Belgian prospect Cindy Dandois and blew her out in 34 seconds.<\/p>\n
Four years gone<\/p>\n
In August 2012 she announced she was pregnant. In August 2013 she announced she was finished as an athlete and moving into coaching. She was 23 years old and she meant it at the time.<\/p>\n
The comeback took until March 2016, and it was ugly. Zaira Dishekova caught her in an armbar inside a round at ACB 32. Nearly four years out of competition and the first thing that happened was a submission loss.<\/p>\n
Six months later she stopped Wu Yanan in the second round on a Fightspirit Championship card in St Petersburg. Two months after that she was in Kansas City, fighting for a world title.<\/p>\n
The armbar that got taken back<\/p>\n
Invicta FC 20, 18 November 2016. Tonya Evinger was nine fights unbeaten and defending the Bantamweight belt. Kunitskaya recovered guard off her back, threw up an armbar and had the champion tapping at 1:59 of the opening round.<\/p>\n
Then it unravelled. Evinger had been defending the hold by planting her heel on Kunitskaya\u2019s face, which is entirely legal in professional MMA. The referee told her to move it. Seconds later she was submitting. Evinger appealed, and on 1 December the Missouri Office of Athletics ruled the bout a no contest, returning the Bantamweight belt to Evinger<\/a>. MMAWeekly laid out why the referee\u2019s instruction was the problem<\/a>, given that no foul had actually taken place.<\/p>\n The rematch in March 2017 went the champion\u2019s way, a rear-naked choke in round two. Kunitskaya got her belt properly five months later, outworking Raquel Pa\u2019aluhi over five rounds at Invicta FC 25 to take the vacant title and a second Performance of the Night bonus.<\/p>\n A title shot nobody had booked her for<\/p>\n Max Holloway\u2019s ankle wrecked UFC 222. With the main event gone in early February 2018, the promotion needed a headliner, Cris Cyborg said yes, and the Invicta Bantamweight champion took a Featherweight title fight on roughly a month\u2019s notice in her UFC debut.<\/p>\n She landed. She also got taken apart, stopped by punches at 3:25 of the first round on 3 March 2018.<\/p>\n What followed was the actual career. Lina Lansberg on the UFC 229 card, a shutout. A bloody, grinding decision over Marion Reneau in Wichita in March 2019. Then Aspen Ladd blitzed her 33 seconds into the third round in Washington DC, and the rebuild started again with wins over Julija Stoliarenko and Ketlen Vieira<\/a>.<\/p>\n Three losses and a broken nose<\/p>\n The Vieira win put her a fight away from real contention. Then Irene Aldana broke her nose inside the first minute at UFC 264 and finished her before the round was out.<\/p>\n She was pregnant with her second child within weeks of that fight, which meant 20 months on the sidelines. She came back into Holly Holm in March 2023 and lost clearly, then dropped a split decision to Karol Rosa<\/a> at Featherweight three months later. Three straight, all against opposition at or near the top of the division.<\/p>\n Speaking to UFC.com about the Aldana defeat<\/a>, she refused to hide behind the injury. \u201cI don\u2019t want to find any excuse,\u201d she said, before explaining that the broken nose had made it hard to breathe from the opening exchanges.<\/p>\n A booking against Norma Dumont in January 2024 fell through when a broken nose forced her out of camp.<\/p>\n Coconut Creek and the family business<\/p>\n She trains at American Top Team in Coconut Creek, the Florida super-gym she moved to alongside her husband, former UFC Light Heavyweight title challenger Thiago Santos, who now fights for PFL. The couple got engaged in December 2020 and she has competed under his surname since 2022.<\/p>\n She has a son from a previous relationship and a second child with Thiago. He corners her. She cornered him through the worst stretch of his career, including the aftermath of his five-round war with Jon Jones.<\/p>\n Three on the spin<\/p>\n The rebuild that followed has been the most productive run of her UFC career.<\/p>\n Chelsea Chandler<\/a> came in five pounds heavy in August 2024 and got outboxed for 15 minutes anyway. Then came Miesha Tate in Des Moines on 3 May 2025, a former champion, in front of a crowd that booed Santos through her own post-fight interview. She survived a genuine late surge from Tate and took all three cards. Standing in the cage getting jeered, she told Michael Bisping she had never dreamed of sharing an Octagon with an opponent like that.<\/p>\n Then Macy Chiasson<\/a> at UFC 320 on 4 October 2025, another overweight opponent, another unanimous decision.<\/p>\n Her whole UFC ledger runs through the judges. She sits among the division\u2019s all-time leaders for decision wins and total strikes landed, with the second-best significant strike accuracy in women\u2019s Bantamweight history. Nobody has ever accused her of being a finisher at this level. Everybody who fights her ends up in a phone-box scrap for 15 minutes and loses the exchanges.<\/p>\n 31 October<\/p>\n She has not fought since UFC 320. A booking against Norma Dumont<\/a> on 25 April 2026 came and went, with Santos withdrawing and Joselyne Edwards<\/a> taking the fight.<\/p>\n The return is set for the Meta APEX on 31 October against Luana Santos<\/a>, the Brazilian who has gone unbeaten since moving up to Bantamweight and is ten years younger. Bloody Elbow carried the report of the Santos vs Santos booking<\/a> after Ag Fight first broke it, alongside her own post on X.<\/p>\n \u201cExactly the kind of opportunity I\u2019ve been waiting for,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n Yana Santos MMA Record and Fighter Stats<\/p>\n \n Name \n Nationality \n Weight Class \n Date of Birth \n Height \n Pro Record \n UFC Record Recent Fight Record<\/p>\n \tDateEventOpponentResultMethod<\/p>\n \t4-Oct-25UFC 320Macy ChiassonWUnanimous Decision<\/p>\n \t3-May-25UFC Fight NightMiesha TateWUnanimous Decision<\/p>\n \t10-Aug-24UFC Fight NightChelsea ChandlerWUnanimous Decision<\/p>\n \t1-Jul-23UFC Fight NightKarol RosaLSplit Decision<\/p>\n \t25-Mar-23UFC Fight NightHolly HolmLUnanimous Decision<\/p>\n \ud83d\udc49 Explore: Fightomic Rankings<\/a> | Fightomic Women\u2019s Bantamweight Rankings<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The lowdown Russian. Thirty-six. Born in Murmansk, a port city sitting above the Arctic Circle, and these days…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":872605,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85],"class_list":["post-872604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=872604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872604\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/872605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=872604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=872604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=872604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n Yana Santos<\/p>\n
\n Russian\n <\/p>\n
\n Women\u2019s Bantamweight\n <\/p>\n
\n 11 November 1989 (Age 36)\n <\/p>\n
\n 5\u20196\u2033\n <\/p>\n
\n 17-8, 1 NC. 7 wins by KO, 1 win by submission\n <\/p>\n
\n 7-5\n <\/p>\n