We can’t wait to see this moment turned into a movie! Brazilian Luis Felipe Alvim just became the new Juiz de Fora Fight Welterweight Champion! You can rest assured that you have never heard a story like this before in your lifetime.
The 18th edition of Juiz de Fora Fight was expected to feature a championship fight between Carlos Eduardo Rufino and Claudinei Kall as its main event. Rufino, who was competing against Kall for the 170-pound belt, missed weight by a pound. Kall agreed to take on the overweight opponent but eventually, he pulled out of the fight. That’s when our main character enters the story.
Luis Felipe Alvin, a 22-year-old mixed martial arts fan, and his girlfriend Fabiana took money out of their savings to purchase tickets for the event. The couple had planned on selling brownies outside the building so they could enter the fight. But when they arrived, most fans were already inside the building, leaving no one to buy the couple’s brownies. Having made the trip already, Alvin and Fabiana went inside anyway.
Once inside the hotel, Alvim was like a fish in the sea. He went straight to the locker rooms looking for his coach Felipe Silva, who is a UFC lightweight fighter himself, and his friends that were scheduled to compete that night. Backstage was when Alvim first heard about the situation. Rufino was unopposed and Alvim, who is a black belt in Muay Thai and a blue belt in Jiu-Jitsu, was feeling brave. He volunteered to fight in the main event, however, a challenger had already been found.
“I told Felipe Silva I’d fight, that I’d put on a show, but a new fight was already booked,” Alvim said to MMAfighting.com “Forty minutes before the main event, this guy chickened out and they offered me the fight again.”
For a moment, it felt like Alvim, who had never fought MMA before, had bitten down on more than he could chew. The amateur fighter had 15 Muay Thai bouts under his belt. He’s also a regular in local Jiu-Jitsu tournaments. But when he stepped in against an intimidating Rufino, who at the moment was 5-1 in his career and was already familiar in the 170-pound division, you could say that Rufino was feeling extra motivated about seeing Alvim in the other corner. Rufino had only lost only one battle during a Jungle Fight 170-pound belt fight back in July.
Wonderful victory by Felipe Alvim in main event Juiz de Fora Fight 18. He agreed to fight 40 min before the battle. Great pro-debut. #mma pic.twitter.com/HADYxrlFMA
— Yaroslav Stepanov (@wonders4341) October 11, 2017
Having no other options available, Valdir Araujo, a promoter with Juiz de Fora Fight, agreed to take Alvim up on his offer and gave the young Brazilian boy a chance to debut himself as an MMA fighter in a welterweight title fight.
There were 1,500 fans that fateful night inside the Gran Victory Hotel in Juiz de Fora. Alvim was probably still confused with all the noise and bright lights of the arena when Rufino took him down, but his training quickly kicked in and subsequently attacked Rufino with an armbar. Rufino defended and Alvim transitioned to a triangle choke, forcing the veteran fighter to tap out.
“He took me down and landed some heavy shots, and I thought ‘oh sh*t, what the f*ck am I doing here?'” Alvim told the MMA portal. “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.”
The crowd’s jaws dropped to the floor and then screamed in disbelief when Alvim won the fight. It was a moment of pure sports magic. Alvim, bleeding from his mouth, went down on one knee and proposed to his girlfriend, with whom he was selling brownies outside the building just one hour before becoming the new welterweight champion. Hollywood wouldn’t have been able to come up with a story like this.
Article inspired by MMA Fighting // Man attends MMA event as a fan, ends up winning a belt in Brazil