Considered by some to be a pioneer of Australian mixed martial arts, Sinosic fought on the first ever Australian MMA show, Caged Combat. He competed for and won the first ever Australian MMA title, the Australian Vale Tudo Heavyweight Championship. He was also the first Australian to fight for a nominal World Title, and was the first Australian to fight in an MMA match in K-1 when he lost at the K-1 World Grand Prix 2000 vs Frank Shamrock. He was also the first Australian to fight in the UFC - UFC 30 vs Jeremy Horn - his only winning performance with the organization, where he was the first Australian to fight for a UFC World Championship. Sinosic was also the first Australian to compete in the ADCC World Submission Wrestling Championships when he competed in the inaugural event in 1998, defeating unheralded grappler Clarence Thatch before being submitted by Renato Verissimo.
UFC career
Sinosic is a UFC veteran holding a record of 1 win and 6 losses within the UFC, at the time the statistically worst record in promotional history, contributing to the 8 wins, 12 losses and 2 draws in his mixed martial arts career. He made his UFC debut defeating Jeremy Horn by armbar at UFC 30, considered a huge upset at the time, and was then offered a match with Tito Ortiz, who was then the UFC Light Heavyweight Champion at UFC 32. Sinosic was defeated by Ortiz in the first round via Technical knockout. Subsequently, he fought several times in the UFC, with matches against Evan Tanner, Renato Sobral, Forrest Griffin, and Alessio Sakara at UFC 57. Following his historically unsuccessful stint with the UFC, he defeated regional fighters Shamoji Fuiji and Mark Epstein both by armbar. Sinosic's last fight in the UFC was a loss to Michael Bisping due to TKO at UFC 70. He was scheduled to return to the octagon in 2010 for a rematch against Chris Haseman at UFC 110, the first UFC event to be held in Australia. However, just days before the fight, Sinosic was forced to withdraw with a shoulder injury. Following what the promotion perceived to be an elective surgical procedure that would not have prevented him from competing against Haseman, Sinosic was permanently cut by the promotion and never offered another contract.
Sinosic's knockout loss to Forrest Griffin appeared in the 2007 filmNext starring Nicolas Cage and Jessica Biel. He also appeared on UFC Fight Week in Australia as an analyst which occasionally featured a segment known as "MMA 101" in which Elvis shows a short visual demonstration on a particular technique. Sinosic claimed to be the first person to perform a Gogoplata in MMA competition, although his opponent did not submit.
Sinosic runs Kings Academy, a martial arts school located in Sydney, Australia teaching Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Muay Thai, kickboxing, mixed martial arts, wrestling and hot yoga. Kings Academy was established in 2017. Prior to being known as Kings Academy, from 2002 till 2017 Elvis Sinosic and Anthony Perosh both held the title of "Chief Instructor" together at SPMA which was located in two different locations in Sydney. Both Instructors decided to open their Individual Gyms after they agreed that one instructor should be at one location to pay closer attention to their students.
