With a record of 19-4, Smilin' Sam Alvey is a fairly experience mixed martial artist who has competed across 3 different divisions Light Heavyweight, Middleweight, and Welterweight (TUF). He has fought for King of the Cage 4 times. 3 of those were wins,  along with 1 draw. He then made his way to Bellator and competed in the Middleweight Season 5 tournament. In his debut he beat Karl Amoussou via decision. In the quarter final he lost to Vitor Vianna via decision. 

After the loss to Vitor Vianna he went on to win 4 of 5 fights. He then joined the cast of The Ultimate Fighter Season 16. This is where he would drop to Welter weight for the first time in his career. To get into the house he fought Leo Kuntz, all it took was a single right hook to end the fight. During the fighter picks he was Team Carwins 1st pick. 2 fight of the season Shane Carwin picked Sam Alvey to go up against  Team Nelsons, Joey Rivera. After a domination by Joey Rivera he ended up winning the unanimous decision win over Sam Alvey. After being eliminated Sam Alvey confirmed he would be moving back to Middleweight saying this:

"Most of my career I’ve been at 205 and then I made the cut to 185 and that was a pretty big cut. Then 29 days before the show aired I got asked to be on the show, so I cut 40lbs in that 29 days. I was so drained after the cut and I just never regained, I mean in the fight I threw three punches, I had two takedowns or what could have been takedowns had I used it, it just wasn’t my day."