Alessio Sakara

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.
Please discuss this issue on the talk page or replace this tag with a more specific message.
This article has been tagged since March 2007.

Alessio "Legionarius" Sakara (born September 2, 1981 in Rome, Italy) is an Italian mixed martial arts fighter, currently competing in the Ultimate Fighting Championship's light heavyweight division.

[edit] Biography and training

When Sakara was five, he began to play football (soccer) as a midfielder. Sakara began training in boxing after realizing that, in order to be a football player on a professional level, he needed to know how to defend himself in case of a confrontation on the field.^{[citation needed]} Initially, Sakara continued to play football and box, but after being penalized for fighting during a football tournament, he decided that he couldn't continue boxing and football.^{[citation needed]}

After two years of training, Sakara competed in his first boxing tournament and won. Several years after turning professional in boxing, a friend showed him a video of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, and Sakara drew inspiration. To supplement his training, he traveled to Brazil where he met Roberto Almeida Meneguetti, a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt. The two athletes cross-trained together, with Sakara teaching Meneguetti boxing and Meneguetti teaching Sakara Jiu-Jitsu.

Alessio has amassed a 14-5-1 record, with one no contest ruling, in mixed martial arts and has participated in four UFC events. His next fight will be at UFC 70 in Manchester, England against Canadian Victor Valimaki.