5 Things You Might Not Know About Carlston Harris

Carlston Harris outside of a few hiccups has performed quite well inside the Ultimate Fighting Championship welterweight division.

The well-rounded Brazilian will take aim at Santiago Ponzinibbio in the UFC Fight Night 249 co-main event on Jan. 11 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, where he can perhaps inch closer to a spot in the Top 15 rankings at 170 pounds. Harris has rattled off seven wins across his past nine appearances. However, he finds himself on the rebound following a 90-second knockout loss to Kalinn Williams at UFC Fight Night 241 on May 18. The setback dropped him to 19-6.

As Harris approaches his high-stakes battle with the American Top Team-trained Ponzinibbio, here are five things you might not know about him:

1. Humility was ingrained in his DNA.

Harris was born on July 9, 1987 in Skeldon, Guyana, an obscure town of roughly 3,000 people in northern South America situated some 4,200 miles to the southeast of Ultimate Fighting Championship headquarters in Las Vegas.

2. He dealt with immediate hardship.

“Mocambique” made his professional mixed martial arts debut in 2011 and proceeded to lose two of his first three fights. Christiano Marques and Fernando Bruno were the perpetrators. Harris owns a 18-4 record across his 22 appearances since, losing only to Williams, Shavkat Rakhmonov, Jarrah Al-Silawi and Julio Cesar Andrade.

3. Hard evidence strengthens his case.

Harris laid claim to the Brave Combat Federation welterweight championship when he took a five-round unanimous decision from Carl Booth in the BCF 8 co-main event on Aug. 12, 2017. He surrendered it in a technical knockout loss to the aforementioned Al-Silawi a little more than a year later, then eventually made his way to the UFC.

4. He was careful in choosing his inner circle.

The luta livre black belt trains with the Renovacao Fight Team in Rio de Janeiro, where he hones his skills and formulates game plans under longtime coach Marcio Ramos Barbosa. Andre Santos, Luciano Azevedo and Luiz Jorge Dutra Jr. are among the others who have called the gym home.

5. His skills placed him in high demand.

In addition to the UFC, Harris has worked for UAE Warriors, Shooto Brazil, Brave Combat Federation, Imortal Fight Championship, Skull Fighting Championship, Watch Out Combat Show, Xtreme Fighting Championships, Cage Combat, Bitetti Combat, Beija-Flor Fight Combat and Apocalypse Fighting Championship.