Popular UFC veteran Sam Alvey has just been promoted to BJJ black belt by Guardian MMA coach Chad Hardy. Not only has Alvey had a successful MMA career but he’s actually trained and competed in multiple martial arts over the years. He started out with wrestling in high school and transitioned from that into MMA, developing solid striking along the way. He competed on the regional MMA circuit dozens of times and enjoyed a short stint in Bellator, but it was his time with the UFC that he became known for, as he appeared in the octagon more than 20 times between 2014 and 2022.
Alvey currently has a 34-18-1 (1) professional record but he hasn’t actually competed in MMA since 2023, as he took a pretty big leap in his combat sports career back then. Like many other MMA fighters coming towards the end of their careers, Alvey decided to change lanes and compete under a different ruleset. He made his Karate Combat debut at KC 41 and scored a very impressive knockout win over Adam Ramos in the very first round. He finished the year with another win in the Karate Combat pit, as he beat Ross Levine by decision and took home the inaugural heavyweight world title.
He then had two more fights for Karate Combat in 2024 and remained undefeated with a no contest and a TKO win, both of them coming against Antonio Arroyo. Alvey has become one of the key figures in Karate Combat as their reigning heavyweight champion, and he’s currently preparing to defend his title once again when he faces elite kickboxer Tyrone Spong at KC 54. This will be the toughest test of his promotional career so far and although he’s clearly been working hard on his striking for it, he’s still found the time to receive some well-deserved recognition for his grappling skills.
Sam Alvey shared the news that he had been promoted to BJJ black belt in a recent post to his official Instagram account:
