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Emiliano Sordi won a $1 million Professional Fighters League (PFL) prize after finishing first in the PFL's 2019 light heavyweight season and playoffs. Then, Sordi, a proud Argentine man, decided to use the money to cater food to people affected by the COVID-19 pandemic back in his homeland.
The PFL might not yet be the most notable MMA league, but it certainly has offered an inspirational story with one of its most talented fighters.
"Everything here is very rough. The economy is very bad. The situation is looking very ugly."
Like many other MMA fighters, Sordi comes from a very poor background in Rio Cuarto, a small city in the province of Cordoba in Argentina.
Sordi is eager to help the people from his hometown who live in the same underprivileged conditions as he once had.
"I tried to use the positive thing that happened to me to help friends and people in my city," Sordi said in Spanish on Monday's episode of Hablemos MMA. "I live in Rio Cuarto. It's a very small city. It might have 180,000 inhabitants. The people had it very bad."
The Argentine fighter went on to defeat five contestants in one year to put his hands in the hefty prize that came as a company to the division's belt.
Sordi has been in Argentina since winning the title. Because of the closed borders of the country, he was unable to go to the US where he normally trains.
The 29-year-old hopes that he will be able to go back to the US before the end of the year to restart his training on time for the 2021 PFL light heavyweight season, which will happen during next spring in Las Vegas.
Emiliano Sordi decides to take action during the pandemic in Argentina
Heavily affected by the coronavirus pandemic, Argentina is struggling to surpass the emergency. Already facing an economic crisis before the pandemic, the South American country has seen its other problems deepen as a consequence of the virus.
Sordi was moved by the situation, having to see with his own eyes the ongoing fight of the country he left behind because of his profession.
"It broke my soul watching children, like 5 or 10 years old, telling me that they hadn't eaten in three days or that their mother would only drink tea so they could eat. The truth is that it was a tough experience, but it would give us an even bigger desire to keep helping them."
"During the quarantine, a few times, we were allowed to leave during the week. I would go out and try to help people with my friends. We got special permits that the municipality gave us, and we would go out twice or three times a week, sometimes one, and we would give out food."
'He-man', as Sordi is also known, decided to take action and developed a plan to help out families struggling during the pandemic.
"We started giving food to about 300 people and we got to a point where we gave food to 3,000. So economically, I didn't enjoy any of (the $1 million prize). I didn't buy anything. I didn't go on vacation. I mean, I was locked at home. But I used those resources to help people who were going through a rough time."
"(I did) everything with my own money. I never asked for money to any organization, and much less the state," Sordi said. "I did what I could. I invested my money in something that brought me satisfaction and it was just that: helping those who were hungry. And to this day, there's people who are still living in hunger."
