Sam Oropeza (born June 17, 1985) is a former American mixed martial artist, coach, manager, boxer, and politician who most notably competed in Bellator's middleweight and welterweight divisions.
He made his professional debut on June 6, 2009, against Mitch Filer at World Cage Fighting Alliance in Atlantic City, New Jersey and defeated him via rear naked choke in the first round.
From 2009 to 2010, he was victorious against Dustin Collins via submission, Dave Concepcion via head kick knockout, and Koa Ramos via guillotine choke at KOTC: Honor[5] Oropeza's first defeat was against fellow undefeated prospect Myles Jury at KOTC: No Mercy.
[6] He bounced back on the biggest stage of his career up to that point by submitting Don Carlo-Clauss in front of 11,287 fans at Strikeforce: Fedor vs.
The premise of this show was to put 'real life bullies' in the cage to fight professional mma fighters.
[9] After an extended break from competition, Oropeza returned to face Aung La Nsang on March 16, 2012, at Matrix Fights 5.
[13] On September 20, 2013, at Matrix Fights 8, in front of a home town crowd in South Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Oropeza defeated Brett Oteri via TKO in the first round.
Oropeza was unable to make weight for the rescheduled semi-final bout of the Bellator Season 10 Welterweight Tournament against Andrey Koreshkov.
One seventy is just to small for him.”[17] Oropeza made his middleweight return against Gary Tapusoa on October 24, 2014, at Bellator 130.
[19] Oropeza was scheduled to fight at CFFC 52 on Halloween 10/31/2015 at the Borgata Casino Hotel, in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
After his first ever loss by decision Oropeza announced he was taking time off from professional MMA for personal reasons.
It is rumored he will be fighting in the spring or summer of 2018 Oropeza officially announced he will return to the cage on May 18, 2018, at Art Of War 7 at the 2300 Arena in south Philadelphia, PA.
It has been announced that Oropeza will be the Main Event and face Nick Wagner (7-6-1 MMA Record according to sherdog.com) in a 185LB Middeweight bout.
He made his return to professional combat sports on March 11, 2017, after a lengthy hiatus and knocked out his opponent Joe Parkinson (0-1) in 35 seconds.