Top no gi grappler Lucas Valente just won his professional MMA debut at Fury Challenger Series 13 on April 27th, 2025. He was jumping straight into the deep end as well, as Valente has never had any amateur fights before this either. Valente is in good company competing under the Fury FC umbrella though, as he joins both Damien Anderson and Kody Steele in starting his career there. The promotion has a proven track record of helping elite grapplers develop into established fighters and there’s a clear pathway for them to progress on to the main Fury FC show, and eventually on to the UFC.
Valente was taking on fellow debutante Dustin Smith in his first fight and although Dustin had already had a pair of amateur fights, Valente recently won the IBJJF No Gi World Championship for the second year in a row. That proved to be the deciding factor too, as Valente was able to take the back and sink in the rear-naked choke to get the finish in the very first round. After spending just 70 seconds in the cage and sustaining no real damage at all, it looks as though Valente will even be able to make a pretty quick turnaround for his second fight as long as he wants to do so.
It’s notoriously tough for elite grapplers to actually find willing opponents at their stage of their careers though, so it may not even be under his control unfortunately. Whenever Valente does step back into the cage, it’s hard to imagine any fighters on the regional MMA circuit giving him any trouble on the ground. Obviously the best chance any of his opponents have of winning is to keep the fight standing, but Valente will no doubt be working on his striking skills while his career progresses. At just 29 years old, Valente still has plenty of time to become more well-rounded and turn into a top contender in the lightweight division.
Fury FC shared the footage of Lucas Valente winning his MMA debut at Fury Challenger Series 13 in a recent post to their official Instagram account:
