Roger Alves feels at home in the cage

Before Roger Alves returns to action for the first time in two years at Unified 33 on May 11 at River Cree Resort & Casino in Enoch, Alta., the well-respected veteran of the sport caught up with FightbBookMMA.

How did you find MMA to begin with?

I was seventeen years old and in high school. I was wrestling and me and a friend of mine had saw the fights in Lethbridge, so I decided to try it out. My first tournament was when I was eighteen in Saskatoon in a bar called Riley’s Pub. I did a couple of fights there, enjoyed it, and whenever I had the time and opportunity I’ve taken a fight.

Why only four fights so far?

I was still wrestling when I started fights. I took one ten years ago and I lost to Kajan Johnson, who’s now in the UFC in a split decision. I was on top of him for two and a half rounds, so I got turned away from that when I found out that one of the judges was his teammate. The only other guy was an hour out of town. The politics of it really annoyed me and kept me out of it for ten years because I thought it was stupid. I started fighting again a couple of years ago and I haven’t fought because I had surgery and have had three fights fall through – back-to-back-to-back. It’s hard for me to get a fight sometimes, but it’s been about a year and I’ve had twelve fights fall through.

How do you feel your life would be different had that fight been scored correctly?

I definitely would have kept fighting. Who knows where I would be? It was so stupid and I was pissed off at the sport and the way it was. There were almost no regulations back then. I’d probably have a lot more fights and who knows where I’d be.

What’s driving you to compete?

Mostly just to stay active. I have a lot of love for the sport and I love competing. I wrestled for a long time and this is obviously a different challenge, but the variation of it keeps me motivated. I wrestled professional for almost twenty years, but this is a new thing every day. It’s nice to have new skills and a little bit different of a look at things. It’s the challenge.

How will it feel to get back in the cage?

It’ll feel like anything else. Competition is competition. You don’t feel good, but I don’t get as nervous as I used to. I’m assuming I’ll feel at home in the cage.

How many times would you like to fight this year?

I don’t know. It depends on my body and I can’t say for sure. We’ll have to see how I feel after this one. I don’t like to jynx it.

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Roberto Villa

Roberto Villa is the CEO, Founder, Executive Writer, Senior Editor of FightBook MMA. Has a passion for Combat Sports and also a podcast host for Sitting Ringside. He’s also a former MMA fighter and Kickboxer.