The details on Cavali are that he’s a 23-year-old messenger who calls the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn home, and he walks around at the same weight he fights at – a svelte 140 pounds. He looks like he’s carved out of wood. When he fights, it’s a blur of agility and high-kicks and flourishes with his hands that seem straight out of Five Deadly Venoms.
“I was doing martial arts a while,” says Cavali, “and I always fought out in the street. But I figured I was getting tired of that and I didn’t want to get arrested. My teacher knew someone who told him about a martial arts tournament coming up, so I went in saying, ‘Let me see how good I can do.’ I didn’t expect to win. At all. If you look at the videos and interviews, I didn’t expect to win. But I went in there and I just tried my best, and I came out on top.”
At the last MUSU installment, which was held in March at a
location in Jamaica, Queens, Cavali squared off against an Underground Combat
League veteran in Chris Lorenzo. It was
a rematch, and after a TKO via body-blow felled his opponent, Cavali abdicated
the throne. He retired from MUSU with an
unblemished 10-0 record.
“I retired from Manup Standup because I felt like I really
didn’t have anything else to prove,” he says.
“For me, the last fight that I had with Chris was like an alpha-and-omega
match. The whole championship thing
started for me when I fought Chris, and it ended when I fought him again.”
Twice Cavali has ventured into the territory of the UCL,
testing the waters with a pair of kickboxing-only matches, and though he lost
via decision in both outings, his performances were impressive enough to garner
more than a few invitations to train with established MMA teams. He remains true to his kung fu school, though,
where they practice grappling as well. “Most
people say that kung fu can’t be transitioned into MMA,” he says. “That’s something I want to disprove.”
How soon until his first true MMA bout? And will it be in a sanctioned bout in New
Jersey or an unsanctioned affair closer to home?
“Right now I still training for it,” says Cavali. “Before, I just jumped into it. Now I’m actually preparing for it. So I guess I’ll start out with underground
events first. When I’m more experienced,
I’ll go and do those sanctioned events. I
don’t want to jump into something like going to Jersey without really knowing
the vibe of it. I want to make sure I’m
fully prepared.”
When asked about his long-term goals in regards to fighting
and competing, he doesn’t hesitate to answer.
“My ultimate goal is to just build a career doing something I love
doing. I don’t consider this work. I love to do it. I’ve always fought.”Bonus Question: What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever done?
“The craziest thing I ever done was in high school,” says Cavali. “I had a threesome in the janitors’ closet with these two girls from the other side of Brooklyn. That was it. That was the craziest thing I’ve ever done.”
Watch for Cavali to fight in the UCL in the fall.
