Jordan Rinaldi

Jordan Rinaldi (born September 25, 1987) is an American mixed martial artist. He was the welterweight Complete Devastation champion. Rinaldi competed in featherweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).

Background
Rinaldi was born in Olean, New York. His family would later move to Charlotte, North Carolina, where Rinaldi grew up with his two older brothers and three stepsisters. He graduated from David W. Butler High School in nearby Matthews, North Carolina. Even though he played baseball and football at a young age, as a late bloomer with only a 93-pound body weight frame, he followed his brother and started wrestling during his freshman year in high school. Rinaldi attended the University of North Carolina at Charlotte after high school and worked at a car wash station part-time. His coworker at the car wash, who was a BJJ practitioner, introduced him to BJJ and since then he has transitioned from wrestling to MMA.

Early career
Rinaldi fought in a number of promotions including World Series of Fighting (WSOF) and Resurrection Fighting Alliance (RFA) during his early MMA career. He picked up eight stoppages in 12 professional career wins since his 2010 debut, noticeably held wins over former UFC veterans Dennis Bermudez, Diego Saraiva and Clay Harvison. He held a 5 fight winning streak prior to signing with the UFC. Rinaldi competed for the featherweight title for Resurrection Fighting Alliance (now known as Legacy Fighting Alliance) in 2012 and lost the fight to Jared Downing. He was the former Welterweight champion for Complete Devastation promotion where he submitted Tenyeh Dixon who missed the welterweight upper limit of 22 lbs on that fight.

The Ultimate Fighter
Rinaldi was one of the contestants for the UFC TV MMA fighting competition, The Ultimate Fighter 15 (TUF 15) also known as The Ultimate Fighter: Live in 2012. He faced Joe Proctor during the entry round and lost the fight via submission on round 1 and failed to accepted to the TUF house.

Ultimate Fighting Championship
Rinaldi made his promotional debut as a short notice replacement, filling in for Carlos Diego Ferreira who was pulled out from the fight due to a potential USADA violation, against Abel Trujillo on May 29, 2017 at UFC Fight Night: Almeida vs. Garbrandt. He lost the fight via unanimous decision.

Rinaldi next faced Álvaro Herrera on August 5, 2017 at UFC Fight Night: Pettis vs. Moreno. He won this fight via submission (Von Flue choke) in round one. The submission victory was Rinaldi's first in the UFC. He is also the fourth fighter in UFC history to have defeated an opponent with a Von Flue Choke submission.

Rinaldi faced Gregor Gillespie on January 27, 2018 at UFC on Fox: Jacaré vs. Brunson 2. He lost the fight via TKO in the first round.

Rinaldi faced Jason Knight on November 3, 2018 at UFC 230. He won the fight via unanimous decision.

Rinaldi faced Arnold Allen on March 16, 2019 at UFC Fight Night 147. He lost the fight by unanimous decision.

On May 16, 2019 it was reported that Rinaldi was released by UFC.

Mixed martial arts

 * Complete Devastation
 * Complete Devastation Welterweight Champion (One time) vs. Tenyeh Dixon

Personal life
Rinaldi works as a corporate financial analyst and he earned his BS in Accounting and BSBA in Finance degrees from University of North Carolina at Charlotte.