- A former Brazilian UFC fighter was fired after being doping in 2020
- He lost his house and revealed that he began doing sex work to buy cigarettes.
A former UFC star has reported how he turned to sex work to pay cigarettes after being homeless.
Eduarda Neves Santana, nicknamed 'Doubt Cowboyzinha', used to fight to make a living before being fired by UFC in 2020 after positive for doping.
Santana had been a rising star, with three victories and a defeat in his record, having been hired to compete in UFC in 2019.
But things went to the south for the Brazilian star after he fought financially during Covid-19, when he had to put in quarantine.
Finally, he was homeless and addicted to drugs, even falling into prostitution to feed a habit of cigarettes, as stated in a video of three years ago that he has appeared in the Brazilian press.
“The family also does not understand that this is a disease, it is not a dirty trick … This addiction is very sad,” he says in the video, according to Globe.
A former UFC star has reported how he turned to sex work to buy cigarettes after being fired and being homeless.
Eduarda Neves Santana won three of her four fights before giving positive for doping
Santana tells how “little things” would make it “depressed” and that fed their drug habit
“Sometimes I'm going for days and days without smoking, I start getting excited,” I'm going to fight again! “So anything small depresses me, I start using drugs again.
'Follow your dream, don't listen to “friends,” avoid drugs. “Oh, I just smoke a little sheet, I just smoke an articulation”, “Oh, a joint is natural” … brother … Starts like this: articulation, cocaine, crack … then it becomes like, prostituting yourself for yourself for the Drugs
'To get things from the fight, which was expensive, I had no sponsorship, it was just me, you know? Today I prostitute to buy a package of 20, to buy a cigarette.
In the video, which Globe has seen, 'Cowboyzinha' is being helped at his feet by an evangelical church, which provided him with food.
Her UFC local colleagues also joined to help her to buy some food in the supermarket.
“God took me everything, like Job, but one day he will return everything,” he added.
'He is testing me as he tried Jesus in the desert, as Daniel tried. But one day this story will have a happy ending. Wait for my return.
It is not clear what happened to him, since his social networks have been inactive since 2018.