Alessio Sakara

From CageWiki

1 Profile
2 Boxing Career
3 Early Career
4 UFC Career
5 Mixed martial arts record
6 Gallery
7 External links

Profile

Alessio "Legionarius" Sakara (born September 2, 1981) is an Italian professional mixed martial artist who currently trains out of American Top Team in Coconut Creek, Florida.

He stands 6 ft. 1 in. tall and fights in the middleweight division (185 lbs.) for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).

His nickname "Legionarius" means a member of the heavy infantry in the ancient Roman army in the period of the late Roman Republic and the Roman Empire.

Boxing Career

Sakara had a 29-3 amateur boxing record with BoxRec.com listing his professional boxing record at 6-1 with five TKOs. All of Sakara's professional wins came against fighters with no professional victories to their name.

Early Career

Alessio Sakara made his professional mixed martial arts debut at a one night four man tournament held in Italy on June 21, 2002. Sakara defeated Di Clementi via KO in just 13 seconds in his pro debut and then Mastioli Mastioli via armbar in 20 seconds later in the night.

Just over a month later, Sakara entered another tournament, this time in England for the Cage Warriors Fighting Championships. He defeated Adam Woolmer in the opening round via Kimura submission at 1:27 of round 1 before losing in the next round to Simon Holmes via rear naked choke submission in 4:50 of round 1 to mark Sakara's first professional MMA defeat.

Sakara dropped his next fight as well, this time a decision to Russian, Roman Zentsov at an M-1 Mix Fight event in St. Petersburg, Russia.

"Legionarius" bounced back from the consecutive defeats with four straight victories with three of which coming via TKO.

In October of 2004, Sakara dropped the third fight of career as he lost a unanimous decision to future PRIDE and UFC competitor, Assuerio Silva.

Two more victories followed the Silva defeat, the last of which, a decision victory in King of the Cage - pushing his record to 9-3 - coming in February of 2005.

UFC Career

In mid to late 2005, Sakara signed a contract with the Ultimate Fighting Championship and agreed to make his debut at UFC 55 in October. At UFC 55 he faced Ron Faircloth in a bout Sakara dominated up until the beginning of the second round where a wild kick from Faircloth connected to Sakara's groin. Sakara was unable to recover and the bout was ruled a "no contest".

Sakara recovered and made up for his disappointing UFC debut with a clear cut unanimous decision over Australian, Elvis Sinosic at UFC 57 in February of 2006.

At UFC 60, Sakara faced highly decorated Brazilian jiu jitsu black belt, Dean Lister on the main card. Once the fight hit the floor, Sakara was in over his head and was quickly submitted with a triangle choke at just 2:20 of round 1.

Six months later, Sakara returned to UFC competition. He faced Drew McFedries at UFC 65 in a bout that was meant to showcase his highly regarded boxing skills. Sakara showed off those skills early as he damaged McFedries with some good shots, however Sakara began to wilt as McFedries resisted and began to show off his power. With under a minute left, Sakara fell to his back kind of oddly and McFedries pounded him out to take the TKO victory.

A worrying two fight slide was halted at UFC 70 by Sakara as he beat up Victor Valimaki and picked up a first round TKO stoppage.

Sakara made his return to a UFC main card at UFC 75 when he faced rising light heavyweight contender, Houston Alexander. Wary of Alexander's power on the feet, Sakara shot for a takedown early but was thrown off by Alexander. Sakara initiated the clinch again and was dropped with a knee by Alexander and stopped on the ground with follow up punches at just 1:01 of round 1.

At UFC 80, Sakara levelled his UFC record at 3-3 when he picked up a TKO stoppage over PRIDE veteran, James Lee. After the bout, Sakara claimed that he would drop to the middleweight division for his next bout.

True to his word, Sakara faced off against TUF 1's Chris Leben in a middleweight bout on the main card of UFC 82 in March of 2008. The fight was billed as the boxer vs. the brawler and it lived up to that billing. Sakara landed good combinations early while Leben waded through his punches throwing haymakers. Eventually Leben caught Sakara and dropped him, and finished him off on the ground for the stoppage victory at just 3:16 of round 1.

Sakara picked up his first victory at middleweight at UFC Fight Night 15 in September of 2008 when he picked up "Knockout of the Night" with a head kick KO over opponent, Joe Vedepo.

Sakara will next return to action at UFC 101 in Germany when he faces former middleweight title challenger, Thales Leites. Leites filled in as a replacement for his original opponent, Rousimar Palhares.

Mixed martial arts record

**Professional Breakdown**
21 matches	14 wins	7 losses
By knockout	8	3
By submission	2	2
By decision	4	2
Draws	0

Sakara had a no contest with Ron Faircloth at UFC 55 in October of 2005.

Record

Result	Opponent	Method	Event Title	Date	Round	Time	Notes

Win	Thales Leites	Decision (Split)	UFC 101: Declaration	8/08/2009	3	5:00	Sakara was a late replacement for Rousimar Palhares
Win	Joe Vedepo	KO (Head Kick)	UFC Fight Night 15	9/17/2008	1	1:27	Won Knockout of the Night Honors
Loss	Chris Leben	TKO (Punches)	UFC 82: Pride of a Champion	3/01/2008	1	3:16	Middleweight Debut
Win	James Lee	TKO (Punches)	UFC 80: Rapid Fire	1/19/2008	1	1:30	-
Loss	Houston Alexander	TKO (Knee and Punches)	UFC 75: Champion vs. Champion	9/08/2007	1	1:01	-
Win	Victor Valimaki	TKO	UFC 70: Nations Collide	4/21/2007	1	1:44	-
Loss	Drew McFedries	TKO (Punches)	UFC 65: Bad Intentions	11/18/2006	1	4:07	-
Loss	Dean Lister	Submission (Triangle Choke)	UFC 60: Hughes vs. Gracie	5/27/2006	1	2:20	-
Win	Elvis Sinosic	Decision (Unanimous)	UFC 57: Liddell vs. Couture 3	2/04/2006	3	5:00	-
NC	Ron Faircloth	No Contest (Sakara Kicked in Groin)	UFC 55: Fury	10/07/2005	2	N/A	UFC debut
Win	Frank Amaugou	Decision (Unanimous)	KOTR: King of the Ring	2/19/2005	N/A	N/A	-
Win	Tihamer Brunner	TKO	RF: Ring Fight	11/20/2004	N/A	N/A	-
Loss	Assuerio Silva	Decision (Unanimous)	JF 3: Jungle Fight 3	10/23/2004	3	5:00	-
Win	Eduardo Maiorino	KO	RF 1: Real Fight 1	7/30/2004	1	0:30	-
Win	Rafael Tatu	TKO (Doctor Stoppage)	Meca 9: Meca World Vale Tudo 9	8/01/2003	2	4:18	-
Win	Damien Riccio	Decision	MAD: Martial Arts Day	5/11/2003	2	6:00	-
Win	David Mortelette	TKO (Punches)	LRDC 6: La Resa Dei Conti 6	12/20/2002	1	1:12	-
Loss	Roman Zentsov	Decision	M-1 MFC: Russia vs. the World 4	11/15/2002	2	5:00	-
Loss	Simon Holmes	Submission (Rear Naked Choke)	CWFC 1: Armaggeddon	7/27/2002	1	4:50	-
Win	Adam Woolmer	Submission (Kimura)	CWFC 1: Armaggeddon	7/27/2002	1	1:27	-
Win	Mastioli Mastioli	Submission (Armbar)	FN: Fight Night	6/21/2002	1	0:20	-
Win	Di Clementi	KO	FN: Fight Night	6/21/2002	1	0:13	-