Less than a year into his initial run with the Ultimate Fighting Championship, Alex Oliveira will draw his first main-event assignment opposite Donald Cerrone at UFC Fight Night 83 on Sunday at the Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh. Oliveira’s road to the Octagon included triumph and tragedy, as the Brazilian “Cowboy” faced the unimaginable horrors life threw his way: hunger, the murders of two brothers and a fight alone against a gang. Oliveira never lost hope or his sense of humor.
Born in Tres Rios, Brazil, a countryside city located a little more than 80 miles from Rio de Janeiro, Oliveira grew up poor and worked with his mother cleaning houses at a young age.