Din Yero Thomas ( ; born September 28, 1976) is an American former

mixed martial artist Mixed martial arts (MMA) is a full-contact fighting sport based on striking and grappling; incorporating techniques from various combat sports from around the world. In the early 20th century, various inter-stylistic contests took place t ...

who was featured on '' The Ultimate Fighter 4: The Comeback''. In the

Ultimate Fighting Championship The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is an American mixed martial arts (MMA) promoter (entertainment), promotion company based in Las Vegas, Nevada. It is owned and operated by TKO Group Holdings, a majority owned subsidiary of Endeavor ( ...

, Thomas is a UFC 41 Lightweight Tournament Semifinalist and a current analyst for the organization. He holds a Black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu under Ricardo Liborio and currently runs two successful Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and

MMA Mixed martial arts (MMA) is a full-contact fighting sport based on striking and grappling; incorporating techniques from various combat sports from around the world. In the early 20th century, various inter-stylistic contests took place t ...

academies in Port St. Lucie, Florida. Thomas holds notable victories of ( UFC Lightweight Champion) Jens Pulver, ( UFC Welterweight Champion)

Matt Serra Matt Serra (born June 2, 1974) is an American former professional mixed martial artist and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioner. He is a former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) competitor and a former UFC Welterweight Champion. He is the co-sta ...

, and ( Strikeforce Lightweight Champion) Clay Guida. Thomas has acted in local independent films, portraying The Fight Kid in Chris Fuller's '' Loren Cass'' and Reverend Pierce in ''Natalie, Queen of Scots''. He appeared alongside Dana White and former opponent Matt Serra on Dana White: Lookin' for a Fight, and currently is a cast member of the UFC Live Weigh-in Show.

Background

Thomas was born in

Wilmington, Delaware Wilmington is the List of municipalities in Delaware, most populous city in the U.S. state of Delaware. The city was built on the site of Fort Christina, the first Swedish colonization of the Americas, Swedish settlement in North America. It lie ...

, where he lived until he was 12 years old. When he was 12 Thomas moved to Port St. Lucie, Florida, and attended Port St. Lucie High School. Thomas flirted with baseball and football growing up, but ultimately did not have a serious interest in team sports because he did not like negatively affecting his teammates. A few weeks before his 18th birthday, Thomas' life changed drastically. He had recently broken up with his girlfriend, and in a fit of rage beat up her new boyfriend at her house. The young Thomas was charged with battery and had to spend his weekends in prison for the next year. Soon, he turned his attention to jiu-jitsu and began training in a small academy near his home. ink dead

Mixed martial arts career

Before entering the UFC, Thomas held a 12–1 MMA record including wins over future UFC

lightweight Lightweight is a weight class in combat sports and rowing (sport), rowing. Boxing Professional boxing The lightweight division is over 130 pounds (59 kilograms) and up to 135 pounds (61.2 kilograms) boxing weight classes, weight class in the spor ...

champion Jens Pulver and Dokonjonosuke Mishima, with his only loss coming to future UFC

title challenger

Caol Uno (born May 8, 1975) is a Japanese mixed martial arts, mixed martial artist and professional wrestler. He is the List of UFC champions#Tournament winners, Co-Champion of the List of UFC champions#Tournament winners, UFC 41 Lightweight Tournam ...

. Thomas made his UFC debut at UFC 32, in a fight against future UFC Lightweight and Welterweight champion B.J. Penn, where he lost by TKO (strikes) in the first round. Thomas returned at UFC 33, defeating Fabiano Iha by unanimous decision. At UFC 39, Thomas faced Japanese superstar

in a rematch. The fight was part of a tournament to determine the new UFC Lightweight Champion. After three rounds, Thomas lost by unanimous decision. His next fight was a split decision victory over future UFC

welterweight Welterweight is a weight class in combat sports. Originally the term ''welterweight'' was used only in boxing, but other combat sports like muay Thai, taekwondo, and mixed martial arts also use it for their own weight division system to classify th ...

champion

at UFC 41. This fight would prove somewhat controversial, due to one of the judges mistakenly placing the score he assigned to Thomas in the column reserved for Serra. This caused Serra to be declared the winner by decision, but the mistake was discovered and Thomas and his team were notified of the change, giving Thomas the split decision victory. This would be Thomas' last UFC fight for 3 years. Thomas was a contestant on The Ultimate Fighter 4 where he defeated Mikey Burnett in the first round, before losing to training partner Chris Lytle by decision in the semi-finals. Thomas returned at the finale on November 11, 2006, to face Rich Clementi, winning via

rear naked choke The rear naked choke (RNC), also known as hadaka jime (裸絞) in Judo and "lion killer choke (Mata Leão)" in BJJ, is a chokehold in martial arts applied from an opponent's back. The word ''naked'' in this context suggests that, unlike other stra ...

in the second round. Thomas was then defeated via

submission Deference (also called submission or passivity) is the condition of submitting to the espoused, legitimate influence of one's superior or superiors. Deference implies a yielding or submitting to the judgment of a recognized superior, out of re ...

(rear naked choke) by future UFC lightweight title challenger Kenny Florian after injuring his knee in a takedown attempt while headlining the main event at UFC Fight Night 11. Doctors said in his takedown attempt that Thomas tore his meniscus and stretched his PCL. His most recent UFC fight was a unanimous decision loss to Josh Neer at UFC Fight Night 13. He was released from his UFC contract after this fight. After his loss to Neer, Thomas decided to drop a weight class to

featherweight Featherweight is a weight class in the combat sports of boxing, kickboxing, mixed martial arts, and Greco-Roman wrestling. Boxing Professional boxing History A featherweight boxer weighs in at a limit of . In the early days of the division, ...

(145 lbs). He debuted at featherweight against Dustin Pieken securing a triangle choke in the first round. He has followed that up with TKO wins over Gabe Lemley and Dustin Pague. Thomas had signed with Shine Fights and was expected to make his debut against Ricardo Mayorga on May 15 in Fayetteville, North Carolina but it was canceled after Don King was granted an injunction preventing Mayorga from fighting. Thomas was scheduled to return after a nearly two-year-long layoff October 7, 2011, at Fight Time 7 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, a promotion headed up by his American Top Team boxing trainer, Howard Davis Jr. But Thomas was in a car accident prior to the event and had to be hospitalized for his injuries. His fight against George Sheppard was scheduled to be the main event of Fight Time 7: The Return of Din Thomas. On January 2, 2014, Thomas announced his retirement from mixed martial arts.

Coaching career

Besides his own professional mixed martial artist career, Thomas has been coaching since the early days of MMA. He started coaching at Mike Metzger's Internal Power Karate School in 1999. Thomas owned multiple MMA and jiu-jitsu schools until he was recruited to become one of the primary coaches at American Top Team in 2015. Before becoming a full-time coach at ATT, he had been partially affiliated with the team and its athletes since 2001. In March 2020, Thomas announced that he had departed from ATT in order to pursue his own MMA camp.

Personal life

Thomas is married and has a son named Ethon. He also appeared in the 2007 Gotham Award-nominated independent feature film '' Loren Cass'' which had its United States premiere at Dennis Hopper's CineVegas Film Festival and its international premiere in the prestigious Filmmakers of the Present competition at the Locarno International Film Festival in

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

. The film was released in theaters and on DVD in 2009 by Kino International. Thomas was arrested on October 30, 2007, on a charge of "felony prohibited competitions" in Port St. Lucie,

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

at his training gym. As of November 30, 2007, the Assistant State Attorney's office decided not to file formal charges against Thomas and filed paperwork dismissing the charge on which he was arrested. The Assistant D.A. stated if the fighter or participants were students of Thomas' school, and the purpose of the school is to teach martial arts, then they meet the exception to the law.

Championships and accomplishments

Mixed martial arts

** UFC 41 Lightweight Tournament Semifinalist ** Fight of the Night (One time) vs. Clay Guida ** Submission of the Night (One time) vs.

Jeremy Stephens Jeremy Dean Stephens (born May 26, 1986) is an American professional mixed martial artist, Bare-knuckle boxing, bare-knuckle boxer and professional boxer, who currently competes in the Lightweight (MMA), Lightweight division of the Ultimate Figh ...

**UFC.com Awards ***2007: Half-Year Awards: Best Submission of the 1HY & Ranked #6 Submission of the Year *World Extreme Fighting **World Extreme Fighting Lightweight Championship (Three times) *Reality Super Fighting **Reality Super Fighting Lightweight Championship (Two times) *International Sport Combat Federation **ISCF World Lightweight Championship (One time)

Mixed martial arts record

, - , Loss , align=center, , Georgi Karakhanyan , Decision (unanimous) , Legacy Fighting Championship 19 , , align=center, 3 , align=center, 5:00 ,

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, England , , - , Win , align=center, 20–5 , Dwayne Shelton , Submission (armbar) , BP: Pride & Glory , , align=center, 1 , align=center, N/A ,

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, Japan , , - , Win , align=center, 19–4 , John Strawn , Submission (armbar) , Absolute Fighting Championships 11 , , align=center, 1 , align=center, 1:15 ,

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, United States , , - , Loss , align=center, 17–4 , Amar Suloev , TKO (punches and soccer kicks) , Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye 2003 , , align=center, 1 , align=center, 4:22 ,

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, Japan , , - , Win , align=center, 17–3 , Steve Berger , Decision (unanimous) , Absolute Fighting Championships 4 , , align=center, 3 , align=center, 5:00 ,

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, United States , , - , Win , align=center, 15–2 , Rob Baer , TKO (punches) , RSF 6: Mayhem in Myers , , align=center, 1 , align=center, 1:22 ,

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, United States , , - , Win , align=center, 8–1 , Dokonjonosuke Mishima , TKO (doctor stoppage) , Shooto – R.E.A.D. 2 , , align=center, 2 , align=center, 3:37 ,

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, United States , , - , Win , align=center, 1–0 , Tomas Velazquez , Submission (armbar) , WVF: Jacksonville Vale Tudo 1 , , align=center, 1 , align=center, 1:02 ,

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Notes and references

External links

Official Site
* *
November 2006 Interview
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thomas, Din Living people American male mixed martial artists Mixed martial artists from Delaware American practitioners of Brazilian jiu-jitsu People awarded a black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu 1976 births Sportspeople from Wilmington, Delaware Featherweight mixed martial artists Lightweight mixed martial artists Mixed martial artists utilizing Brazilian jiu-jitsu African-American mixed martial artists Ultimate Fighting Championship male fighters 21st-century African-American sportsmen 20th-century African-American sportsmen