Having rejected an offer to join the UFC, Cris Cyborg Santos makes her Invicta debut April 5. (AP)

KANSAS CITY, Mo. The last time Cris Cyborg Santos fought professionally, Newt Gingrich was the front-runner in the Republican presidential primaries, Breaking Dawn: Part I had just hit theaters and an upstart judoka by the name of Ronda Rousey showed promise with her second win on the Strikeforce circuit.

Needless to say, much has changed since Santos was the face of womens MMA.

Since Santos received a one-year suspension for testing positive for stanozolol leading up to her Dec. 17, 2011 fight with Hiroko Yamanaka, Rousey rose from niche sport newcomer to mainstream sports icon; the all-female fighting promotion Invicta launched while Strikeforce went the way of Gingrich; and UFC president Dana White 180ed on his position that women were too pretty to fight, placed them as headliners on the UFC 157 card, and slapped Santos with perhaps the cruelest insult when he labeled her irrelevant. (Oh, and Twilight fans watched Alice and Edward kiss in advance of their happily-ever-after ending in Breaking Dawn: Part II, in case you were wondering.)

Its been a tough time, said Santos, 27, relaxing on the couch of her Holiday Inn hotel room Thursday night as she prepared for her return to the ring against Australias Fiona Muxlow as part of Friday nights Invicta 5 fight card. Banana bunches, hardboiled eggs, and half-empty bottles of Pedialyte the hallmarks of her weight cut to 145 pounds are spread before her on a coffee table.

A tough time thats about as much as a reticent Santos will reveal about her 16-month layoff but talk to anyone in her inner circle and theyll tick off a list of indignities ranging from her mounting bills to her dwindling bank accounts, the sponsors who hightailed it away from her, her divorce from fellow fighter Evangelista Santos, and perhaps the worst of it all the Strikeforce incident.

It was Aug. 18, 2012 eight months into her steroid suspension when Strikeforce hosted its main event, Ronda Rousey versus Sarah Kaufman, near Santos San Diego apartment. As the former Strikeforce featherweight champion, Santos expected to sit where all the fighters do: cageside, where fighters can get a close-up of their potential opponents and television cameras can capture the fighters reactions. But when Santos arrived, she discovered shed been banished to the bleachers, high above the cage and far from the TV sightlines. When a friend fighting on the card found out about her seat placement, he sent her a ticket for a floor seat from his allotment.But again, Strikeforce officials shepherded her to the top of the stairs and back of the arena.

It really bothered her, says George Prajin, who manages Santos along with UFC Hall of Famer Tito Ortiz.

But Santos says the year off, brutal as it was, offered her a chance to re-evaluate her career, her future, and the weaknesses in her game. She focused on improving her jiu-jitsu to balance out her potent punching power, changed management, and with the help of Ortiz, opened her own gym in her native Brazil called The Rock.The gym is part of Ortizs and Prajins plan to extend her brand beyond the cage.

In one of her first conversations with Ortiz, Santos told him, When I beat Gina Carano and won the [Strikeforce featherweight] belt, my life didnt change, my bank account didnt change.

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