Olympic Bronze Medalist Alexis Vila, who notably knocked out Joe Warren at Bellator 51, has been taken into custody and is facing a murder charge.
Olympian and former Bellator/WSOF combatant Alexis Vila has been jailed on some rather serious charges in Florida. Per a Miami-Dade County Inmate Information Record, Vila (fully, Alexis Vila-Perdomo) is being held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on charges including murder in the second degree, as well as a conspiracy charge. Jason Floyd of the MMA Report was among the first to report the news. Vila is currently being held without bond, and is listed as “hold for immigration” which generally means involvement from ICE.
Few additional details on Vila’s arrest are available at this time. The former fighter was booked back on April 17. A Miami-Dade police official declined comment to Cageside Press on Saturday and deferred to the Public Information Officer (PIO), who is only available during business hours.
Vila (15-7) won the bronze medal in freestyle wrestling at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlantic. Competing for Cuba, he would later defect to the U.S. An incident in 2004 saw Vila crash his car into the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, resulting in a prison stretch. Upon his release he went pro in MMA, making stops in Bellator and WSOF among other promotions. Running up an eleven fight win streak to start his career, Vila defeated both Joe Warren and Marcos Galvao in the Bellator season five bantamweight tournament. Both fighters would go on to become Bellator champions. Vila was finally stopped by Eduardo Dantas in the final, and would lose once more in the promotion the following season before moving on.
From 2013 to 2014, Vila spent time in the WSOF, going 1-2 in the company. He was most recently seen competing at Titan FC 40 in 2016, picking up a win over Jorge Calvo. At the time, he spoke to MMA Fighting about resuming his MMA career at the age of 45.
Now 47, it appears Alexis Vila has far more serious concerns to contend with. We’ll update this story as it develops.
Update, April 24 2018 3PM ET: Miami-Dade PD’s Public Information Officer confirmed to Cageside Press that Vila was picked up on a sealed warrant. A copy of the document provides scare info, given it is a sealed warrant, but shows that the warrant was signed on April 17 and Vila was arrested later that night. His occupation is listed as fighter, “weapon seized” is marked in the negative.
