The Ups and Downs of Eduardo Dantas

After Eduardo Dantas tore up the regional circuit in his native Brazil, captured a Shooto Americas title and found his way to Bellator MMA, he wasted no time in reaching the top of the California-based promotion’s bantamweight division. Still, his career has been something of a rollercoaster ride.

Dantas racked up three wins in Bellator before submitting Zach Makovsky with a textbook arm-triangle choke to claim the 135-pound championship in April 2012, and he made two successful title defenses against Anthony Leone and Marcos Galvao. However, he surrendered the title in a unanimous decision loss to Joe Warren at Bellator 128. An NCAA All-American wrestler at the University of Michigan and a…