Nathalia Santoro is a Brazilian fitness model, bodybuilder, BJJ competitor, and the girlfriend of well known Nogi submission grappling sensation Gordon Ryan. Santoro is originally from Sao Paulo, Brazil and is currently living in Austin, Texas.
Santoro is probably best known as a result of her large Instagram following where she is better known as @notheysonny. She regularly posts risque pictures of herself and partner Gordon Ryan. Her posts are often tongue and cheek and hilariously funny. Her posts also regularly test the limits of Instagram’s posting policies and she has received a number of account suspensions from Instagram for violations.
When living in Brazil she played soccer and was also interested in track and field and a number of other sports before moving to New York to pursue body building. She has competed previously int he BodyFitness categories for bodybuilding and has won a number of championships including Garota Fitness São Paulo and the Miss Brazil and Mr Fitness contest in Sao Paulo.
Nathalia Santoro & Gordon Ryan
While living in New York Santoro began training at Renzo Gracie’s HQ in Manhattan. It was here that she met current partner Gordon Ryan. They began dating in 2016 despite Santoro being approximately 7 years his senior.
Ryan and Santoro have a long running joke pretending that they are in fact brother and sister. They regularly both post on social media stating that they are related and imply that their relationship is physical in nature despite the fact they are siblings.
Santoro travels to most of Ryans competitions and has regularly played Uke (person to demonstrate technique on) in Ryans DVD’s and at his seminars. She holds a brown belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu under coach John Danaher.
BJJ Competitor
Like Gordon and other members of the Danaher Death Squad Santoro prefers to train and compete in Nogi Jiu Jitsu (wearing shorts and a rash guard) rather than entering gi competitions. She has previously competed on the under card on a number of Kasai Grappling events.