The former fighter MMA Gerônimo “Mondragon” dos Santos has been missing since Saturday morning, the 13th, after diving into the Rio Negro in São Gabriel da Cachoeira (AM)the city in which he held the position of undersecretary of public security.
Gerônimo’s brother, Feliciano Borges Neto, released the first information about the disappearance on Gerônimo’s own social media account. Subsequently, São Gabriel da Cachoeira city hall confirmed what had happened by postponing a Christmas event in the city because of the disappearance.
Gerônimo Mondragon disappeared on Saturday, 13th, in the Rio Negro Photo: Reproduction/Facebook
According to Feliciano, Gerônimo was on a beach on the river with his girlfriend and decided to take one last swim before returning home. In an interview with the channel Fightthe athlete’s brother stated that he took a long dive and, when he stopped, he could not find land to support himself and did not know how to swim. People on a nearby vessel tried to approach to help, but when the fighter was close, he sank and did not return.
O Estadão contacted the São Gabriel da Cachoeira city hall, the Amazonas Fire Department and the State Public Security Secretariat to find out the status of the searches, but there was no response until the publication of this report.
The city hall’s social media profile also published an alert on social media about a sandbank where Gerônimo had disappeared, warning that there is a deep drop there and the current has a circular rotation.
Gerônimo is from Bahia and competed in 50 fights in Brazilian MMA for organizations such as Jungle Fight and Mr. Cage, with a record of 35 wins (24 by knockout) and 15 losses. He even signed a contract with UFC in 2012 to debut in the sport’s main world entity, but ended up not fighting because blood tests detected that he had hepatitis B.
He was later released from his contract and even fought a few times in national MMA competitions. Afterwards, he was a prank actor on television and YouTube channels. In April, Mondragon had his last fight, in bare-knuckle boxing, in which he knocked out Russian former UFC fighter Aleksei Oleinik in the first round.
