Alessio Di Chirico won Amateur championship with 5-0 professional record

At this weekend's UFC on Fox 21 card, Alessio Di Chirico fights in the UFC for the second time. The Italian fighter will carry a 9-1 professional record into the cage after falling to Bojan Velickovic in his promotional debut. Di Chirico's first big exposure came in 2014 when he won the IMMAF World Championships, an amateur event held in conjunction with UFC Fight Week. However, per Tapology, he had already built a 5-0 professional record at the time of the tournament.

Di Chirico is not the only fighter to win an IMMAF world title with a professional record (see below), but he does hold the dubious honor of having the most professional wins of anyone to win the amateur championship.

Per IMMAF rules, professional are not allowed to compete. However, the rules do state that "each national federation will be held responsible for making sure only Amateurs are entered into IMMAF competitions." Perhaps the Italian national federation was not up to speed in time for the IMMAF's inaugural world championships.

The good news is that at the 2016 edition of the IMMAF tournament, none of the winners had previous professional bouts.

IMMAF Champions with Prior Professional Records


YearWeightFighterWinLoss
2014265Hans Lackner30
2014205Alessio Di Chirico50
2014145Jari Illikainen02
2014W125Amanda Ribas10
2014W115Daniela Kortmann10
2015265Zdenek Ledvina02
2015125Iuri Bejenari20