Former top UFC fighter reveals she now prostitutes herself for cigarettes after spiralling into homelessness

A former Brazilian UFC fighter was fired after being banned for doping in 2020

She lost her home and revealed she started doing sex work to buy cigarettes

A former UFC star has related how she turned to sex work to pay for cigarettes after becoming homeless.

Eduarda Neves Santana, nicknamed ‘Duda Cowboyzinha’, used to wrestle for a living before being fired by UFC in 2020 after testing positive for doping.

Santana had been a rising star, with three wins and one defeat on her record, having been hired to compete in UFC in 2019.

But things went south for the Brazilian star after she struggled financially during Covid-19, when she had to quarantine.

Eventually, she became homeless and addicted to drugs, even falling into prostitution to fuel a cigarette habit, as she claims in a video from three years ago which has surfaced in the Brazilian press.

‘The family also doesn’t understand that this is a disease, it’s not a dirty trick… This addiction is very sad,’ she says in the video, according to Globo.

A former UFC star has related how she turned to sex work to buy cigarettes after being fired and becoming homeless

Eduarda Neves Santana won three of her four fights before testing positive for doping

Santana relates how ‘little things’ would make her ‘depressed’ and that fuelled her drugs habit

‘Sometimes I go days and days without smoking, I start to get excited, “I’m going to fight again!” Then any little thing makes me depressed, I start using drugs again.

‘Follow your dream, don’t listen to “buddies”, avoid drugs. “Oh, I only smoke a skunk, I only smoke a joint”, “oh, a joint is natural”… Brother… It starts like this: joint, cocaine, crack… Then it becomes like, prostituting yourself for drugs.

‘To get the stuff from the fight, which was expensive, I didn’t have any sponsorship, it was just me with myself, you know? Today I prostitute myself to buy a pack of 20, to buy a cigarette.’

In the video, which Globo has seen, ‘Cowboyzinha’ is being helped back on her feet by an evangelical church, which provided her with food.

Her local colleagues from UFC also banded together to help her be able to buy some food from the supermarket.

‘God took everything from me, like job, but one day he will give me everything back,’ she added.

‘He is testing me like he tested Jesus in the desert, like he tested Daniel. But one day this story will have a happy ending. Wait for my return.’

It is not clear what has happened to her, as her social media has been inactive since 2018.