By Danny Jones, @ Tidy_MMA on X
The 2021 international expansion of the Legacy Fighting Alliance sought to extend opportunity and platform to the hotbed of mixed martial arts talent based in Brazil. Across twenty-five Brazilian events, the premier developmental organization in mixed martial arts proudly introduced an assortment of emerging Brazilian prospects who continue to flourish with the promotion to this day.
The current undisputed LFA bantamweight champion Vinicius Pires is one such athlete. As of May 2023, “Bad Boy Killer” has competed exclusively at LFA, amassing a 5-0 (1 NC) record from six professional contests. Those five promotional victories were secured against competition with an astonishing 47-10 combined professional record.
On November 14th 2025, the 29-year-old returns for his seventh promotional bout – a defence of his bantamweight championship in the main-event of LFA 222. Ahead of his first title defence, LFA.com revisits the Paulista’s remarkable ascension to undisputed LFA bantamweight champion, with offerings of insights and reflections from Vinicius himself.
The Prelude
Competing out of Sumaré in São Paulo, Brazil, Vinicius built an impressive 6-1 professional record before beginning his LFA tenure. Solely contesting opponents with a positive professional record, the Paulista obtained his six pre-LFA professional victories against competition with a combined 47-15 professional record.
Notably, his lone professional loss was contested at a heavier 145lbs – a weight the Brazilian has only competed at twice professionally. Indeed, Vinicius has competed exclusively at 135lbs since December 2020.
Before joining the LFA roster, Vinicius accrued five consecutive victories, two of which were against future LFA alumni – Icaro Brito and Alan Gabriel. To this day, Vinicius remains the only athlete to defeat Icaro Brito in a professional bout.
One would be remiss, however, not to spotlight Vinicius’ professional debut. Audacious and remarkable in equal measure, Vinicius launched his professional career against an opponent holding a 10-1 professional record, winning the contest via submission in the second round.
“At the time, I didn’t know how MMA worked” Vinicius admits. “I saw the guy and said ‘Hey, I can beat this guy’. In my other fights before the LFA, I saw it like this. I didn’t know how to manage a career step-by-step. I always saw the opponents and said ‘Hey, I don’t get it, he has like 10 or 20 fights but I can beat the guy!’”.
- The Debut
On May 27th 2023, Vinicius made his promotional debut on the main card of LFA 159 at the CIDE Casa Branca Sports Complex in Caraguatatuba, São Paulo. In a classic São Paulo-versus-Rio de Janeiro matchup, the Paulista contested the formidable Fluminense Kauã Fernandes, a product of Nova União holding a 6-0 professional record.
Intrigue preceded the bout, owing to both athletes sporting black belts in Brazilian jiu-jitsu. Vinicius proved the superior practitioner, however, by ruthlessly putting Fernandes to sleep in the first round with a deep rear-naked choke.
The performance confuted the oddsmakers, who deemed Vinicius an underdog ahead of the bout. It remains the only time Vinicius entered an LFA matchup as the oddsmakers underdog across his promotional tenure.
“When my coach sent my name to Mark Bieri to fight in the LFA… [he said] anyone that you send for us, we’re gonna face – [Vinicius is] training and [Vinicius is] ready” Vinicius explains. “In the odds, I was underdog, but inside the gym we knew that [Kauã Fernandes] was the underdog because we saw [Kauã Fernandes] and we knew that it was a good matchup for me… I knew I had great experience against tough opponents at different shows”.
- The Distance
99 days on from his LFA debut, Vinicius made his promotional return on the preliminary card of LFA 166 – the only preliminary card bout of his LFA career. Hosted at the Ginásio do Polvilho in Cajamar, São Paulo, the Brazilian contested fellow Paulista Isaias Simões, a national Muay Thai champion holding blackbelts in both Muay Thai and Brazilian jiu-jitsu.
Whilst Vinicius introduced flashes of his signature cage wrestling in his promotional debut, it was his contest with Simões that truly showcased the potency of his wall work. Repeatedly, Vinicius masterfully closed the distance to clinch Simões against the fence before wrestling the Brazilian to the ground.
Across the full fifteen minutes, Vinicius all-but nullified Simões’ striking threat, and controlled the contest with superior grappling. Winning the bout via unanimous decision, it remains the only LFA bout in which Vinicius has gone the distance.
“I’ve trained my wrestling for at least 8 years” Vinicius says. “I think the strong point of my gym is the wrestling. My coach Alemão is a wrestling coach and he did a good transition from training wrestling [to training] MMA wrestling, and we adapted so well. It’s a strong point for my team. We train a lot of clinch, the fence, and wrestling from the cage as well”.
III. The NC
Riding a seven-bout win-streak, Vinicius returned to Ginásio do Polvilho in Cajamar, São Paulo for this third LFA bout on 27th January 2024. Competing in the opening bout of the LFA 175 main card, the Paulista contested highly touted prospect Apollo Gomes, a product of Chute Boxe Diego Lima holding a 9-1 professional record.
In a thoroughly entertaining first round, Vinicius dropped Gomes with a straight punch, secured a takedown, and out-struck his Brazilian counterpart. UFC middleweight Caio Borralho, providing commentary on the LFA 175 broadcast, scored the round 10-9 in favour of Vinicius.
2-minutes-and-35-seconds into the second round, however, the contest was halted – Vinicius unintentionally debilitated Gomes with an accidental eye-poke. With Gomes ultimately unable to continue, referee Julio Catarino called an end to the match, ruling the bout a no contest.
“My game plan was to take Apollo down because [Apollo’s] strong point is the striking, but I felt Apollo was strong and defending the takedowns well” Vinicius explains. “[I felt] I could strike against him as well, and I used it to get better after the first round. I took some time to warm up, and I was growing in the fight when the eye poke happened. In the moment I was frustrated about the no contest, because in my mind I felt I got the win. I was supposed to sign to Contender Series. I stayed frustrated for two days, [but] I had a good talk with my coach and on the next Monday I was in the gym training and ready for the next”.
- The Knockout
Three months removed from his no contest with Apollo Gomes, Vinicius returned to the promotion in the feature fight of LFA 183 at Complexo Ribalta in Rio de Janeiro. His first professional MMA bout outside of São Paulo, the Paulista contested 9-1 Fluminense Marlon Basílio.
The contest marked the first instance of adversity inside the LFA octagon for Vinicius, who was caught in a tight guillotine and subsequently dropped by Basílio’s striking in the first round. Vinicius’ high fight IQ prevailed, however, as he adapted accordingly to completely dominate Basílio in the second round with superior grappling.
Despite the dominance of his grappling, however, Vinicius elected to stand-and-strike with Basílio in the third round. In just 30-seconds, Vinicius knocked out Basílio with a thunderous uppercut – the first knockout victory of his professional career.
“The game plan was taking down [Marlon Basílio] from the beginning” Vinicius reveals. “I knew Marlon was so tough… he had a lot of knockouts in his career. Marlon got me with a good strike in the first round, and that changed everything. The game plan for the third round was to take Marlon down, but at the same time I believed this guy knew I was gonna take him down. So, I marched to the fence for the takedown and in my mind Marlon was going to start to be relaxed in standing – only [looking] to defend the takedown. When Marlon guarded the jab, I felt Marlon was low, so I grabbed the overhand and after this I knew Marlon was gonna defend, so I threw the uppercut”.
- The Highlight
Following his first professional bout outside the Bandeirantes State, Vinicius returned to Cajamar’s Ginásio do Polvilho for his fifth LFA appearance, in the feature bout of LFA 197.
For the first time across his professional career, the Paulista contested a non-Brazilian opponent – 12-2 Colombian Jhon Rodriguez Tacha.
In an incredibly entertaining back-and-forth contest, Vinicius once again displayed his durability and heart to survive moments of adversity in the first round. Having found rhythm with his striking in the second round, the Brazilian ultimately capitalised being taken down to submit Tacha with an astonishing triangle choke.
In the wake of his victory, Vinicius spoke on the mic for the first time in his LFA tenure. During the interview, he momentarily spoke in English to say “…Thank you LFA, I love you guys”, and “Hey Dana, I am the best bantamweight in Brazil, where is my contract? Let’s go boss!”.
The bout was subsequently awarded “Fight of the Night” by LFA CEO Ed Soares, and Vinicius’ submission was nominated for the 2024 LFA Fans’ Choice Awards “Submission of the Year”.
“In my mind, it was my best fight in LFA” Vinicius admits. “I knew the guy was a good wrestler. The game plan was striking, and if the guy took me down, it would be a blackbelt against a blue-belt. The game plan on the ground was to attack him every time, [ready for] that one time the opponent would [make] a mistake. When [Jhon Rodriguez Tacha] got tired, he made a mistake, and I got the guy in the triangle”.
- The Champion
On March 28th 2025, Vinicius competed in the first main event of his LFA career. His second professional bout outside of São Paulo, the Paulista headlined LFA’s inaugural event in the Brazilian capital – LFA 205 at Brasília’s Associação dos Servidores do Banco Central.
Competing in the first championship bout of his professional career, Vinicius contested 11-2 Argentine Lionel Abojer for the vacant LFA Bantamweight Championship. A Muay Thai blackbelt and Brazilian jiu-jitsu brown-belt, Abojer entered the bout on the back of a sensational submission victory over Vinicius’ former LFA opponent Apollo Gomes, for which “La Bestia” was awarded “Performance of the Night”.
In a dominant performance, Vinicius employed his signature wall work and superior ground game to exhaust Abojer. Submitting the Argentine via rear-naked choke in the third round, the Paulista captured the LFA Bantamweight Championship to become just the second Brazilian bantamweight champion in promotion history.
Subsequently awarded “Fight of the Night”, LFA CEO Ed Soares said of Vinicius post-broadcast “He’s not just winning fights – he’s finishing fights. I would be very surprised if he doesn’t get a call to at least go to [Dana White’s Contender Series]”.
“It was a dream come true when I got the belt” Vinicius says. “When I started training MMA, I wrote on a piece of paper what I needed to do to sign to the UFC. One of the points was ‘I have to be a Legacy champ’ [referring to Legacy Fighting Championship, who subsequently merged with Resurrection Fighting Alliance to form Legacy Fighting Alliance]. Everything, the way that the fight happened in Brasília, [the way] it was Brazil-versus-Argentina, [the way it was] against the guy that beat Apollo (the guy I have unfinished business with), everything was great. It was like a dream come true”.
VII. The Defence
Representing Campinas’ Mehhh MMA and training under the tutelage of Head Coach Otávio Carneiro, Wrestling Coach Everton “Alemão” De Goes Viera, and BJJ Coach Fernando Rock, Vinicius currently holds an 11-1 (1 NC) professional record. Those eleven professional victories were achieved against competition with a combined 94-25 professional record, and he remains undefeated as a professional at 135lbs.
Now returning for his seventh promotional bout at LFA 222, Vinicius defends the LFA Bantamweight Championship against Kazakhstan’s Artem Belakh in the main-event of LFA’s sophomore Connecticuter event at Foxwoods Casino Resort in Mashantucket. Competing over 7500km away from his home city of Sumaré, the bout marks the start of a new chapter for the 2024 LFA Fans’ Choice Awards “Male Fighter of the Year” nominee, now that he contests his first professional bout outside of Brazil.
“When I got the belt in Brazil, I closed the fight career in Brazil” Vinicius explains. “Now it’s the beginning of my international career. I’m enjoying the journey. In the beginning, I never imagined travelling to the US to work, and now I’m doing that. It’s a new time in my life”.
The author extends his utmost gratitude to Vinicius Pires, Jamie McClintock, and Caio Portella for making this article possible.
Translation provided by Caio Portella.
Image sourced from Extra online (extra.globo.com). Photo credit to Divulgação/LFA Brasil.
