Man Attends MMA Event As A Fan, Leaves As A Champion

MMA is a full-contact sport, and certainly not one for the faint-hearted. Mixed Martial Arts involves elements of wrestling, Kung-Fu, Judo and Jiu-Jitsu to form the ancient sport which has been performed for over 6000 years. It takes years to train to be a professional at this sport.

Something pretty spectacular happened over the weekend in the MMA world. A Brazilian man attended one of the events in Juiz de Fora as a fan, and he left at the end of the night as the new welterweight champion.

You may be thinking ‘how is that even possible?’ Well, the 22-year-old in question, Luis Felipe Alvim had been saving up for tickets to the fight and attended with his girlfriend, Fabiana. The fight took place in Minas Gerais, and the couple had originally planned on selling brownies at the entrance to raise the cash to watch the fight.

Alvim is a huge MMA fan and already had a black belt in Muay Thai, as well as a blue belt in jiu-jitsu. Upon arrival at the venue, he was met by his coach and told that the fight may not go ahead due to a late withdrawal from another participant. Alvim offered to fight in place of Claudinei Kall, who had been scheduled to fight with Carlos Eduardo Rufino on the night.

Mmafighting.com reported that there had originally been another fighter to replace Kall, however that fighter also had doubts. Alvim told the website:

"I told Felipe Silva I'd fight, that I'd put on a show, but a new fight was already booked"

"Forty minutes before the main event, this guy chickened out and they offered me the fight again."

Alvim had never fought MMA before, so he acquired the help of Valdir Araujo for the fight against Rufino.

The fight didn’t begin easily for Alvim:

"He took me down early [in the first round] and landed some heavy shots, and I thought 'oh sh*t, what the f*** am I doing here?'"

"When I locked the triangle I thought to myself, 'sh*t, I'll catch him.' I asked God 'please, don't let this round end,' and he tapped."

After a hard-fought battle, this young MMA fan was crowned the welterweight champion. He received cheers of joy from fans and a name for himself in the MMA world for all time.

As if this was a Hollywood blockbuster, Alvim shocked the crowd and proposed to his girlfriend after receiving his winning belt. She said yes.

It just goes to show that anyone can end up a star if they put their mind to it. Alvim also said he had been inspired to take part in the fight after watching Troy earlier in the day with Fabiano. Alvim will certainly be remembered throughout the history of MMA as the Achilles who fought the giant, and won.

So next time you are attending a sports event, come prepared with your kit and trophy from this website, because you never know what might happen.