Longtime MMA veteran Marlon Sandro reportedly beat and choked unconscious his fiance Tayssa Wuensche on Thursday, December 14th.
One of Nova Uniao’s longest tenured veteran fighters is no longer with the famed Brazilian MMA camp. Andre Pederneiras released a statement to Combate recently, announcing that his team had cut ties with former Sengoku featherweight champion Marlon Sandro, following disturbing allegations of domestic violence.
In an Instagram post, a friend of Sandro’s fiance, Tayssa Wuensche, shared the details of the incident, as well as several pictures of Wuensche’s injures. Allegedly (via MMA Fighting translations), Sandro threw Wuensche to the ground as she attempted to enter a taxi in Rio de Janeiro, early Thursday morning, December 14th. Witnesses report he then choked her unconscious out in the street, even apparently going so far as to continue striking her after she woke back up. Weunsche has since gone on the record to back up those claims.
In her interview with Combate, following the release of the photographs, Wuensche explained that she would not be pressing charges. Mostly due to her worry over what it might mean for Sandro’s children (translation via MMA Fighting).
“What I plan on doing from now on is to find my peace. To be in peace,” Wuensche told MMA Fighting. “This episode will be in the past and I may get back up again and be well. I died inside right now. But I have no intentions of filing charges in the police station because we had a great family, I’m crazy for his kids, and I only think about him — even though he didn’t think of his kids when he did this, I think about them now. Of course that I don’t want any trouble for him, I simply want distance now.”
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“What I’m feeling right now is the biggest disappointing and frustrating of my life,” Wuensche said. “I feel pain, not only physical, but I feel destroyed inside. Of course that I would never expect this from him. He’s the man that I was going to get married with. We were living together for a while now, it was a beautiful family. I loved his kids, and I never expected this from him, of course. I never thought it would get this far, so I’m very disappointed.”
She also expressed her fears over the attention these allegations have garnered, as she had not initially wished to make her assault public. Wuensch made it clear that she has only spoken out as a result of the posts the friends have made about the incident. And that she’s “very embarrassed, even though I know I have no fault.”
Sandro was in Jose Aldo’s corner at UFC 218, and Wuensche even helped the former UFC champion with English translations for his pre-fight interviews in Detroit. For years, the ‘Gladiator’ was a mainstay of Bellator’s 145 lb division. The 26-7-2 MMA veteran went 8-3-1 for the promotion, making it to the final round of two tournaments.
When Scott Coker stepped in in 2014, and the tournament format died, Sandro ended up back in Asia, fighting for Pancrase and Road FC. Outside of competition, Sandro has also been a regular referee on the Brazilian MMA circuit.
For the moment, it seems Sandro won’t be facing many legal repercussions from his alleged assault. This may, however, spell the end of the 40-year-old’s association with high level mixed martial arts on any meaningful level.