Soto, Joe

Joe Soto was born March 22, 1987 in the city of Porterville , California . He was the fourth child with his parents, he lived rather poorly, his father worked as a garbage man, and his mother worked as a cleaner. He grew up in a very religious setting, went to church every week, his family ranked themselves as Pentecostal Christians. While studying at school, he was seriously engaged in wrestling, later continued to train at college, was on the same team with such famous fighters as John Jones and Kane Velazquez , in particular, Jones lived in the same dorm room for two years ^{[1] [2]} .

He began to prepare for performances in mixed martial arts after meeting a fighter who agreed to train him in his garage. He made his debut in MMA on a professional level in July 2006, having beaten his rival by technical knockout in the first round. He fought in the small promotions of the Palace Fighting Championship and the Gladiator Challenge, won four victories in four fights.

In 2009, he joined the newly formed fighting organization Bellator Fighting Championships and took part in its very first tournament. In the framework of the grand prix of the first lightweight season, he defeated Ben Greer and Wilson Reis at the stages of the quarter finals and semifinals, respectively, after which he met with Yair Reyes in the fight for the champion title and forced him to surrender in the second round, having carried out a choking reception from behind ^[3] .

Soto then won one fight at a third-party organization, Tachi Palace Fights, and won the non-title fight Bellator. In September 2010, he defended his championship belt in a duel with official challenger Joe Warren - he was knocked out at 33 seconds of the second round, having suffered the first defeat in his professional career. In August 2011, he challenged the TPF featherweight champion, but lost again, this time Eddie Yagin forced him to surrender the “guillotine”. After two consecutive defeats, he was fired from Bellator ^{[4] [5]} .

Subsequently, he went down to the lightest weight and performed in various less prestigious promotions, regularly fought at Tachi Palace Fights for two years, making a series of six consecutive victories, in particular, he won the TPF champion title.

Since August 2014, has been a member of the world's largest fighting organization, the Ultimate Fighting Championship . Already in his debut match he was awarded the right to challenge the champion title in the lightest weight category, which at that time belonged to TJ Dillashaw . In the main event of the evening, Soto managed to hold out against Dillashaw for four rounds, but in the fifth he missed a kick in the head and was knocked out by the subsequent finishing hands. Later he suffered two defeats in the UFC and won three victories ^{[6] [7]} .

In December 2017, he went into the octagon against the undefeated Welshman Brett Jones and lost to him by surrender 30 seconds after the start of the match ^[8] .

• Joe Soto - professional battle stats on Sherdog