Iuri Alcântara

Iuri Alcântara also known as Yuri Alcantara (born August 4, 1980) is a Brazilian mixed martial artist who competes in the UFC bantamweight division. A professional MMA competitor since 2004, Alcantara mostly fought in Brazil before signing with World Extreme Cagefighting to take part in their final event. He is the brother of fellow UFC fighter Ildemar Alcantara. As of February 3, 2014, he is #10 in official UFC bantamweight rankings.^[1]

Mixed Martial Arts career

Background and early career

Alcantara was born on the island of Marajó, Pará in Brazil. Incidentally, Alcantara takes his fighting nickname from the island and is billed as Iuri "Marajó" Alcantara.^[2] Alcantara trains at the "Striker Team" team^[3] and is managed by Wallid Ismail,^[2] the owner of the Jungle Fight promotion^[4] that Alcantara has competed in and won a championship.^[3]

Alcantara's early career was spaced out considerably. His debut fight took place in March 2004 and he would not return until June 2005, where he won twice in the space of four months. Amongst Alcantara's wins was a grand prix tournament victory in November 2009, when he defeated two fighters in a single night.

Jungle Fight

Alcantara then joined his manager's promotion, Jungle Fight, to compete at the Jungle Fight 19 event against Viscardi Andrade. He went the distance with Andrade, something that had only happened once before in his career.^[3] Alcantara won via split decision,^[5] the first decision victory in his career.^[3]

Following another win via armbar, outside of Jungle Fight,^[3] Alcantara returned for the Jungle Fight 21 event to face Armando Gomes. Alcantara claimed another first round stoppage, when he ended the fight via TKO (punches).^[6]

Alcantara entered into the lightweight grand prix at Jungle Fight 22. His opening round fight was against the highly touted, undefeated Francisco Trinaldo. Trinaldo had previously been named as one of the top prospects in the sport of MMA, having defeated experienced veterans such as Luiz Firmino. Despite the reputation of his opponent, Alcantara was able to hand Trinaldo his first professional loss when he forced him to tap out to an armbar in the second round.

The win advanced Alcantara into the final where he faced the Peruvian Manuelo Morales. Alcantara ran through Morales, defeating him via TKO from a front kick to the body, in just 16 seconds of the opening round. With the win, Alcantara became the first ever Jungle Fight Lightweight Champion.^[7]

World Extreme Cagefighting

On November 3, 2010, it was announced that Alcantara had signed a five-fight deal with Zuffa and that his debut would come at World Extreme Cagefighting's final event, WEC 53.^[2] His opponent was Ricardo Lamas^[2] and Alcantara won via KO in the first round.

Ultimate Fighting Championship

On October 28, 2010, World Extreme Cagefighting merged with the Ultimate Fighting Championship. As part of the merger, most WEC fighters were transferred to the UFC.^[8]

Alcantara was expected to make his featherweight debut against Mackens Semerzier on August 27, 2011 at UFC 134^[9] However, Semerzier was injured and was replaced on the card by UFC newcomer Antonio Carvalho.^[10] Carvalho also was forced from the bout, with an injury, and replaced by Felipe Arantes.^[11] He won the fight via unanimous decision.

Alcantara faced Michihiro Omigawa on January 14, 2012 at UFC 142.^[12] He won the fight via unanimous decision after rocking Omigawa on several occasions and almost submitting him with an armbar.

Alcantara faced promotional newcomer Hacran Dias on June 23, 2012 at UFC 147.^[13] Dias defeated Alcantara via unanimous decision.

Alcantara was expected to drop to bantamweight and face George Roop on January 19, 2013 at UFC on FX: Belfort vs. Bisping.^[14] However, Roop was forced out of the bout with an injury and replaced by promotional newcomer Pedro Nobre.^[15] After nearly finishing Nobre early in the first round with a submission attempt, the bout was declared a No Contest as Alcantara was ruled to have landed an inadvertent, but illegal strike to the back of Nobre’s head, rendering him unable to continue at 2:11 of round 1.^[16]

Alcantara was expected to face Marcos Vinicius on May 18, 2013 at UFC on FX 8.^[17] However, Vinicius was forced out of the bout citing an injury.^[18] He instead faced UFC newcomer Iliarde Santos and won the fight via first round TKO.

Alcantara faced Urijah Faber on August 17, 2013 at UFC Fight Night 26.^[19] Despite having Faber in trouble early in the first round, Alcantara was unable to stop Faber's wrestling and relentless top game and lost a unanimous decision.

Alcantara is expected to face Wilson Reis on February 15, 2014 at UFC Fight Night 36.^[20]

Mixed martial arts record

^[3]

References

External links

• Professional MMA record for Iuri Alcantara from Sherdog
• Iuri Alcantara on UFC.com