Roger Alves (photo via Hayabusa Mixed Martial Arts.com)

By Kelsey Mowatt

When you consider that Roger Alves hadn’t fought in nearly a decade, and that he was fighting in front of his hometown supporters, one can’t blame the Team Hayabusa coach for having some pre-fight nerves Friday night. Despite the intense pressure, however, the 29 year-old scored a unanimous decision win over Jemark Brady, while fighting for World Series of Canada in Edmonton, Alberta.

“Yeah I did. I coach a lot of people, I have a lot of people that look up to me, a lot of people that know that I’m good at what I do, so my only worry was getting caught or not performing to my full capabilities,” Alves said in a recent interview for Full Contact Fighter Radio, while discussing the pressure he was under heading into the bout. “Maybe I didn’t compete to my full capabilities, like a finish would have been much better, but I did play a lot more position over finish game just because it was really slippery and stuff.”

“But definitely the pressure was there, and man, was I happy to get fifteen minutes in the cage because those fifteen minutes will be very valuable in the future fights that I will have,” Alves furthered.

The fight marked the first time Alves fought since October, 2004, when he lost by split decision to current TUF Nations competitor, Kajan Johnson. Although Alves didn’t record a stoppage victory on February 21st, he did work his way to a clear cut win, evidenced by a 30-25, 30-26, 30-27 score.

“He tried to stay away from me, it was really obvious, he knew I was going to try to take him down,” said Alves, while discussing how his developed wrestling pedigree factored into the fight. “I caught him with an overhand right and that kind of phased him…I pounced on him, but he recovered, and I kind of just had his back for the whole round.”

“In the third round again was another takedown, and more ground-and-pound,” furthered Alves, who has won numerous Provincial and National wrestling championships in Canada. “He kept trying to get up and I kept slamming him down, and that’s basically how the fight went.”

Heading into his pro return, Alves appeared on Full Contact Fighter Radio and relayed that after years of training with Team Hayabusa, he knew had to give fighting another go. Alves, who continues to coach and compete in wrestling, didn’t want to have any regrets when his competitive career comes to an end. Now that Alves has returned to the cage, after nearly a decade long hiatus, he hopes to keep a busy schedule.

“I’m going to focus right now, for the next five weeks, I have nationals here in Edmonton, there in my hometown,” said Alves. “I’m going to compete here in Edmonton, see how that goes, and then I’m looking to fight again. Probably end of April, sometime in May. As long as my fights keep going this way, I’m going to try to fight every month and a half or two.”

“I sign one fight contracts right now…there’s lots of show around here,” added Alves, while discussing his contract status and future. “The way I can do it, I could fight every two weeks, if it was physically possible, making weight every two weeks. I’ll be looking to fight on other shows and if World Series of Fighting wants to offer me other fights than great.”

The February 21st WSOF Canada card, which featured Ryan Ford taking on Joel Powell for the promotion’s Canadian welterweight title, will be broadcast on the NBC Sports Network February 28th.