Iuri Alcântara (born 4 August 1980) is a Brazilian mixed martial artist who competed in the UFC bantamweight division.
A professional MMA competitor since 2003, Alcântara mostly fought in Brazil before signing with World Extreme Cagefighting to take part in their final event.
Amongst Alcântara's wins was a grand prix tournament victory in November 2009, when he defeated two fighters in a single night.
Trinaldo had previously been named as one of the top prospects in the sport of MMA, having defeated experienced veterans such as Luiz Firmino.
Despite the reputation of his opponent, Alcântara was able to hand Trinaldo his first professional loss when he forced him to tap out to an armbar in the second round.
Alcântara ran through Morales, defeating him via TKO from a front kick to the body, in just 16 seconds of the opening round.
[8] On 3 November 2010, it was announced that Alcântara had signed a five-fight deal with Zuffa and that his debut would come at World Extreme Cagefighting's final event, WEC 53.
[18] Alcântara was expected to drop to bantamweight and face George Roop on 19 January 2013 at UFC on FX: Belfort vs.
[19] However, Roop was forced out of the bout with an injury and was replaced by promotional newcomer Pedro Nobre.
[20] After nearly finishing Nobre early in the first round with a submission attempt, the bout was declared a no contest as Alcântara was ruled to have landed an inadvertent, but illegal strike to the back of Nobre's head, rendering him unable to continue at 2:11 of round 1.
After the fight, UFC president Dana White accused Nobre of faking the injury.
[23] He instead faced promotional newcomer Iliarde Santos and won the fight via first-round TKO.
[33] Despite being the biggest betting favorite on the card, Alcântara lost the fight via unanimous decision.
[46] However, on 11 May, Arantes was pulled from the fight for undisclosed reasons and was replaced by promotional newcomer Brian Kelleher.
[58] In his first bout post UFC release, Alcântara made his return after 4 years off to face Daniel Bažant at FNC 7 on September 3, 2022.