Thiago Michel Pereira Silva, a.k.a. Thiago Michel (born May 15, 1984) is a Brazilian professional

kickboxer Kickboxing is a combat sport focused on kicking and punching. The combat takes place in a boxing ring, normally with boxing gloves, mouthguards, shorts, and bare feet to favour the use of kicks. Kickboxing is practiced for self-defense, general ...

and

mixed martial arts Mixed martial arts (MMA), sometimes referred to as cage fighting, no holds barred (NHB), and ultimate fighting, and originally referred to as Vale Tudo is a full-contact combat sport based on striking, grappling and ground fighting, inc ...

(MMA) fighter formally competed for

Bellator Fighting Championships Bellator MMA (formerly Bellator Fighting Championships) is an American mixed martial arts promotion founded in 2008 and based in Santa Monica, California, owned and operated as a subsidiary of television and media conglomerate Paramount Global. ...

in their season six lightweight tournament.

Personal life

Thiago Michel stated in an interview that when he was a child, he had a life-threatening throat infection and his father who taught him kickboxing starting at the age of 12, couldn't donate blood to his own son because he drank too much. This lead him never to drink again, strengthening their bond as father and son. Michel soon became a world kickboxing champion where he compiled 26 wins and just 2 defeats.

Kickboxing career

Michel was selected to represent Brazil in the 73 kg/160 lb division at the first It's Showtime event held in the country. He went up against Steve Poort, an up-and-coming Dutch fighter, at ''

It's Showtime 60 This is a list of events held and scheduled by the It's Showtime, a kickboxing and mixed martial arts organization based in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The list consists of all the official It's Showtime events. The first event, It's Showtime - It' ...

'' in

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and won by

unanimous decision A unanimous decision (UD) is a winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, mixed martial arts and other sports involving striking and submission in which all three judges agree on which fighter ...

. He competed in the eight man 70 kg/154 lb tournament at ''Tatneft Cup Brazil'' in São Paulo on December 8, 2012, losing to Carlos Roberto by unanimous decision in the quarter-finals. He faced Miodrag Olar at SUPERKOMBAT New Heroes 2 on March 23, 2013, in a 76 kg/165 lb bout and won on points after dominating in a display of brute strength and size. He defeated Paul Marfort by unanimous decision on the '' Glory 12: New York - Lightweight World Championship Tournament'' undercard in

New York City, New York New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, US on November 23, 2013.

Mixed martial arts career

Early career

Thiago Michel, who trains with world champion kickboxer Ely Perez, was the 2010 ''WAKO World Cup''

kickboxing Kickboxing is a combat sports, combat sport focused on kicking and punch (strike), punching. The combat takes place in a boxing ring, normally with boxing gloves, mouthguards, shorts, and bare feet to favour the use of kicks. Kickboxing is pract ...

champion at 165 lbs (75 kg) while also having a 7–1 record in MMA competition. He's also held

Muay Thai Muay Thai ( th, มวยไทย, , ), sometimes referred to as Thai boxing, is a combat sport that uses stand-up striking along with various clinching techniques. This discipline is known as the "art of eight limbs", as it is characterised ...

titles and has posted knockouts in all nine of his career MMA wins. Michel made his professional MMA debut on November 18, 2006, and has made a name for himself fighting mainly in his home country of Brazil. Michel won 6 of his first 7 fights before a 28-month break from the sport from 2008 to 2010. Before signing with Bellator, he amassed an impressive record of 9 wins and 2 losses. He was also ranked the number 1 lightweight prospect on Bloody Elbow's 2010 scouting report.

Bellator Fighting Championships

Thiago Michel is currently signed to

, competing in their

lightweight Lightweight is a weight class in combat sports and rowing. Boxing Professional boxing The lightweight division is over 130 pounds (59 kilograms) and up to 135 pounds (61.2 kilograms) weight class in the sport of boxing. Notable lightweight boxe ...

division. Michel made his American debut at

Bellator 62 2012 in Bellator MMA was the sixth installment of the Bellator Fighting Championships, which began on March 9, 2012. The sixth season of Bellator was originally scheduled to begin on March 2, 2012. However, the debut was pushed back a week so i ...

on March 23, 2012, where he defeated fellow Brazilian Rene Nazare by split decision. Michel faced Russian prospect

Alexander Sarnavskiy Alexander Sarnavskiy (russian: Александр Сарнавский, born January 17, 1989) is a Russian mixed martial artist who competes in the lightweight division. A professional MMA competitor since 2008, Sarnavskiy has mostly competed in ...

in the opening round of the Bellator Lightweight Tournament on January 31, 2013, at

Bellator 87 2013 in Bellator MMA was the eighth installment of the Bellator MMA, which began on January 17, 2013 and ended on April 4, 2013. Mixed martial arts tournaments were held in five weight classes and all of the champions, except the heavyweight cha ...

. He lost via submission in the second round.

Kickboxing titles

*2014 WGP Kickboxing Champion -78 kg (1 Title Def.) * WAKO Pro Pan American K-1 Rules Middleweight Championship -75.0 kg

Kickboxing record

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Mixed martial arts record

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, Submission (rear-naked choke) ,

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Brent Weedman Brent Weedman (born February 10, 1984) is a retired American mixed martial artist who has competed in Bellator's Welterweight division. He has competed in several Bellator Tournaments, including the: Bellator Season Four Welterweight Tournamen ...

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Minas Gerais, Brazil Minas Gerais () is a state in Southeastern Brazil. It ranks as the second most populous, the third by Gross Domestic Product, gross domestic product (GDP), and the fourth largest by area in the country. The state's capital and largest city, Be ...

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Contagem Contagem () is a city in the center of the state of Minas Gerais, in Brazil. It is only from the capital, Belo Horizonte, and forms part of a metropolitan area with a population of 4.8 million. Geography The city belongs to the metropolitan meso ...

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Montes Claros Montes Claros is a city located in northern Minas Gerais state, in Brazil. The population is 413,487 (2020 est.) in an area of . It was made a seat of a municipality in 1831 and attained city status in 1857. History The region was originally in ...

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References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Michel, Thiago Brazilian male mixed martial artists Lightweight mixed martial artists Mixed martial artists utilizing Muay Thai Mixed martial artists utilizing Brazilian jiu-jitsu Brazilian practitioners of Brazilian jiu-jitsu Brazilian Muay Thai practitioners Brazilian male kickboxers Middleweight kickboxers 1984 births Living people Glory kickboxers SUPERKOMBAT kickboxers Sportspeople from Belo Horizonte