Victor opens the season in the Contender Series

The time has come for Victor Altamirano (9-1), the Mexican is LFA 125-pound champion and faces Carlos Candelario (8-0) in the first episode of Dana White’s 2021 Contender Series season.

Born in Mexico City, ‘El Magnifico’ moved to Dallas, Texas when he was nine years old, as his father, who worked as an electrician suffered an accident that forced his mother to process a humanitarian visa for her and her children.

In addition to studying college and learning to play the cello, Victor found in MMA gyms a place where he was not discriminated against for not having papers and so he developed as a fighter.

LFA has become the promoter that sends more fighters to the UFC and when he won the championship he was waiting for the call to enter the octagon, but with the passage of time he had to take advantage of the space in the Contender Series, where he has to convince the president of the UFC with his performance.

“We’ve been waiting for the fight since February when I won the belt. I’ve always been preparing, even if I don’t have a concrete date I’m always preparing. The more time goes by, you increase the percentage of getting hurt or something that something happens. Then we were offered the contract to contender Series, obviously it’s a great opportunity. We had to make the decision to take the fight or wait for the UFC contract and that wasn’t guaranteed either.”

Originally, Altamirano was scheduled to face Brazilian Vinicius Salvador, but a few weeks ago he was advised of the trade for the undefeated Candelario.

“It’s not going to be a patient fight. They are both very aggressive. In my opinion Candelario has a more technical boxing, Vinicius was more aggressive, but more open with his punches, he telegraphs them a lot. Carlos stays closed, more upright. The changes were minimal,” he explained.

Although he lives in the United States, he never moved away from his culture and seeks to be the first Mexican to earn his place in the UFC Contender Series. He doesn’t let the pressure get to him, though.

“I’ve always had pride in being where I am from. Our country is recognized for producing fighters, although in MMA it’s young, in any country when you talk about boxing, Mexico is always present. Now with MMA which is relatively new we are starting to put our mark, with Brandon Moreno who is already the champion, the first Mexican, little by little Mexico is standing out in another combat sport. It is simply what Mexico is doing, whether or not the pressure to win or compete is not too great, because if it’s not me, it will be someone else, in terms of fighters there will never be a shortage,” added Altamirano.

Although he is 30 years old, Victor is confident that he can follow in the footsteps of Moreno, who was crowned champion of the same category in LFA in 2019 and now wants to make an impact at flyweight, a division that has had few Mexican representatives.

“It’s about time for this new sport of MMA to grow in Mexico. Unfortunately I don’t live there and I don’t know how the fans are growing, I know boxing is huge, but our sport is going to grow,” he finished.

In the first episode of the season, Puebla, Mexico-based Brazilian Diego Lopes is also looking for his UFC entry against Joanderson Brito.