Warlley Alves

Warlley Alves is a 34-year-old Brazilian mixed martial artist who has competed at welterweight and middleweight in the UFC since 2014. Starting his fighting career as a 10-year-old kickboxing student, Alves rose through the ranks to earn selection for The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil 3, where he won the middleweight tournament with an impressive display of submission grappling. His UFC debut victory over Marcio Alexandre Jr. via first-round guillotine choke earned him a Performance of the Night bonus and announced him as a serious threat in the promotion. Over his career, Alves has built a reputation as a slick submission artist, with seven UFC wins by submission including five guillotine chokes. His early years featured notable victories over Colby Covington (who was handed his first professional loss), Nordine Taleb, and a third-round knockout of Sergio Moraes that earned another bonus. More recently, he has faced tougher competition with mixed results, suffering losses to prospects and established fighters like Kamaru Usman, James Krause, and Ikram Aliskerov. His style blends his original kickboxing foundation with smooth grappling transitions, allowing him to hunt submissions from a range of positions or capitalize on striking exchanges when opportunities arise. Despite three Performance of the Night awards that highlight his finishing ability, Alves has seen his momentum slow in recent years, dropping four of his last ten UFC fights and struggling to maintain consistency at middleweight. He remains active on the UFC roster and continues to pursue finishes against opponents willing to engage, representing the journeyman veteran archetype in today's UFC.