Sam Alvey will live to fight another day!
The 52-fight veteran from Waterford, Wis. first appeared on Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) programming as a contestant on season 16 of The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) in 2012. Winning his entry bout, that would be as far as Alvey went with a Joey Rivera majority decision loss following soon after.
Alvey went to Canada’s Maximum Fighting Championship (MFC) directly after his TUF stint where he’d become the Middleweight champion. A four-fight winning streak would be enough to earn him a spot in the UFC as he officially debuted in 2014 and has fought 23 times since.
Unfortunately, Alvey’s past eight outings have not treated him kindly. 0-7-1 in those last eight, it’s a stretch that has left many surprised to see Alvey remain on the roster after suffering a first-round rear-naked choke submission loss to Brendan Allen last month (watch highlights).
“We knew what they’re calling for, they’ve got to cut me,” Alvey said on his YouTube channel (h/t MMA Fighting). “There’d be no hard feelings toward them if they did. Honestly, I’ve been suspecting it coming for a while now because I haven’t won in a while. I’ve had a couple of really good fights that I’ve lost, and in a sport like this, you can’t lose.
“I’m not cut! I get at least one more fight with the UFC. My contract is one more fight, the UFC didn’t cut me. … Me, I’m freaking out a little bit, trying to keep it together on the phone. ‘Thank you,’ I managed to sputter out. ‘Thank you.’”
June 1, 2018, marked Alvey’s last victory when earning a split decision against Gian Villante. Throughout this period, “Smilin’” has done his best to remain positive despite a sea of negativity washing over his social media presence.
“I hate saying it out loud, but the internet loves telling me, ‘Sam Alvey, you haven’t won a fight in four years. You’ve tied B.J. Penn for the most fights without a win and blah, blah, blah,’” he said. “I just saw a post, it’s like, 1300 days since I’d won a fight or something like that. I don’t want to say that it’s heartbreaking and it’s just terrible and I can’t believe the internet would turn on me like that, but it is what it is.”