Fight Path: Mistaken identity, cauliflower ear led Dinis Paiva to MMA

Dinis Paiva

It was a mistake that involved Dinis Paiva’s cauliflower ear that helped him find his opportunity in MMA.

One day a few years ago, the Rhode Island-born and Massachusetts-raised Paiva was walking along when he was approached by a man on the street. By that time, he was back in Rhode Island after a stellar high school wrestling career and a stint in the Navy.

The man thought Paiva was someone else, someone who was a former wrestler and fought MMA, from how he looked and the fact that he had cauliflower ear. It turned out the man was a guy named Keith Allan, and he happened to do MMA training in the Providence area.

It was an opportunity Paiva had been hoping for.

“He gave me his business card and told me to call him,” Paiva told MMAjunkie. “Out of high school, I wanted to fight, but I didn’t know how to get started. I had done some amateur boxing and I had wrestled, so I thought I had some of the skills.”

Now, after a difficult start to his career, Paiva feels like he’s found a new beginning with new success. Unfortunately for his momentum, he was forced to pull out of a scheduled fight against Chino Duran (8-8) on Friday at CES MMA 30 in Lincoln, R.I., CES announced on Thursday. But CES said Paiva and Duran have rescheduled their matchup for Oct. 30, when Paiva will try to keep a four-fight winning streak going and improve on his 7-5 record.

That record was even more dire when Paiva stood at 1-3 and then 3-5. But then continuing his work with trainer Mike Gresh, Paiva has surged to four straight first-round victories, including two in less than a minute.

His is the kind of turnaround story made in MMA, where a change in gym, trainer or lifestyle can quickly improve the fortunes for someone who’s talented but might have turned pro too soon or missed some opportunities.

Paiva is no longer missing those opportunities, even though he once considering leaving his career after his difficult start. Then he recommitted to training, and he has impressed.

“I think I should’ve stayed amateur longer to get more experience, to maybe help me deal with my losses better,” he said. “But this is how it happened, and I’m doing the best I can.”

Star wrestler

Paiva was born and raised in Rhode Island until his family moved to New Bedford, Mass., when he was about 8. It was a rougher area for Paiva and his family. They had come from a place where they lived near a wooded area and had a large backyard, but that was different in Massachusetts, which had a harder edge.

“One of my best friends was murdered in 2012,” he said. “They found his body in the pier after he went missing. It can be a rough place.”

Being smaller than many of the other kids, Paiva liked to do things in which his size didn’t matter, so he got into biking and skateboarding. When he was in middle school, a friend told him he was going to sign up for wrestling. Paiva said he would go along, and it turned out that one of his teachers coached the team.

That helped Paiva feel comfortable giving the sport a try, and it’s a good thing he did. He won his first tournament as a high school freshman on his way to three appearances in the state tournament and a state championship as a senior in 2006.

He went to Johnson & Wales University to join the wrestling team, but he left after the first year because he struggled to pay his tuition. He then joined the Navy, and he was discharged after a relatively short stint because of an injury.

After that, he was left looking for something to challenge him. Then he was spotted for his cauliflower ear.

Turning it around

By the time Allan noticed Paiva, mistook him for someone else and then invited him to train in MMA, Paiva was already moving toward a fighting career.

He had liked MMA since high school, but he didn’t know how to get started. When he got back to Rhode Island from his Navy stint, a friend told him about a kickboxing organization in Florida that was always looking for fighters, and Paiva had experience in both boxing and wrestling.

So right around the time he first went to train with Allan, Paiva flew to Florida for his first fight, in kickboxing.

“We slugged it out,” he said. “I didn’t really have any experience, but I wanted to try it.”

With Allan’s help, he moved closer to MMA, and he took his first amateur fight in 2010. He got a sense after losing that bout that it was going to be a struggle in dealing with defeats.

“I cried uncontrollably,” he said. “I had about eight gin and tonics, and then the next day, I was throwing up on the whole ride home. But I went to my trainer’s garage the next morning to hit the bag, and I was sweating gin the whole time.”

He made it through eight amateur fights before he had an opportunity to go pro. He considered staying amateur so he could get a title shot and a longer bout, but the prospect of earning some money was too appealing.

Paiva won his pro debut in June 2011, but then he lost three straight, and it was difficult to stomach the results. By August 2013, he was 3-5, though he had just started working with Gresh.

“I felt like I was done,” he said. “I took a little hiatus for a few weeks. Gresh reached out and asked me to make it a point to come in at least once or twice a week. So I showed up on a Saturday, and we talked a lot. I asked him what he thought, and he said talent-wise, I had it.”

So Paiva re-committed himself, and the results have come. He’s now 7-5 with four straight wins heading into the re-scheduled Oct. 30 fight.

Catching up

In March 2014, Andrew Sanchez told us about juggling careers both fighting at MMA shows and, sometimes, playing as lead guitarist for a group that sometimes performs at shows. As a fighter, he improved to 7-2 last weekend when he topped John Poppie by third-round knockout at RFA 28.

In January 2011, Amanda Nunes told us about her introduction to Brazilian jiu-jitsu by her sister, who was already training, at 16. She scored her second straight first-round victory last weekend when she topped Sara McMann by submission at UFC Fight Night 73. With the victory, she improved to 11-4, including 4-1 in the UFC.

Award-winning newspaper reporter Kyle Nagel pens “Fight Path” each week. The column focuses on the circumstances that led fighters to a profession in MMA. Know a fighter with an interesting story? Email us at news [at] mmajunkie.com.