Despite his current record losing skid, Sam Alvey has revealed that he hasn’t been released by the UFC.
Winless in his past eight octagon appearances, Alvey (33-17-1 MMA, 10-12-1 UFC) has one fight remaining on his UFC contract and will be granted the opportunity to fight it out. The 35-year-old admits that he expected to be released after he was submitted by Brendan Allen last month at UFC Fight Night 200.
“We knew what they’re calling for. They’ve got to cut me,” Alvey said on his YouTube channel. “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.”
But to Alvey’s surprise, the call he received from the UFC was to let him know that whenever he’s ready to compete, he will receive another chance.
“I’m not cut! I get at least one more fight with the UFC,” Alvey said. “My contract is one more fight. The UFC didn’t cut me.”
Alvey’s eight-fight winless skid is tied with B.J. Penn for the longest in UFC history. Alvey, a Season 16 alum on “The Ultimate Fighter,” has logged in 23 octagon bouts. Since September 2018, he has suffered seven losses and one draw.
But “Smile’n Sam” explains that his willingness to fight anyone at anytime didn’t go unnoticed by the UFC, which is why he continuously was given opportunities.
“They’ve been very good to me,” Alvey said. “Every third fight, they’ve increased my pay, usually significantly. Even when I thought they were gonna cut me, they increased it significantly.”
He continued, “‘You guys have been enjoyed by everyone that works for the UFC. Every time you’re anywhere, any time we’ve had anything to do with you, you say yes to every fight, you go out, you fight your heart off,'” Alvey recalled the UFC telling him. “‘You’ve taken some fights on short notice that you probably shouldn’t have, but you are always game. You’ve never said no. Then you show up and you’re happy to be there, you treat everyone well, and we’ve decided that we’re going to let you fight out your contract.'”
