Throughout the build-up to UFC 205, Eddie Alvarez kept talking about the gameplan Mark Henry had been working on to dismantle Conor McGregor.
However, once fight night arrived, we didn’t see much by way of tactics from the Underground King as McGregor made the legendary brawler look completely out of his depth inside the Madison Square Garden Octagon.
The Notorious consistently found home with the left hand that Tri Star head coach Firas Zahabi famously said contains the “death touch,” and it wasn’t long before Alvarez was gazing up at the stars dancing around his head after losing that coveted golden strap.
After the fight, Alvarez laid the blame on himself explaining that he didn’t stick to the blueprint that Henry had developed specifically for this fight and that ultimately led to his downfall.
“The idea wasn’t to go in there and box, and stand in front of him. I didn’t fight a good fight. We started throwing kicks, and the kicks were successful. I would’ve kicked more, and we didn’t wrestle enough. The idea was to go in there and wrestle a guy who likes to box, and I didn’t do that.”
“Not sure why I didn’t do that, but I paid the price. He capitalised.”
There is no one on planet Earth who has more experience fighting McGregor than his training partner Artem Lobov. The Russian Hammer knows the Notorious’ game inside and out having spent countless hours sparring with him, helping him prepare for fights and watching on from his corner.
He wasn’t surprised at all by McGregor making one of the all-time great lightweights look like an amateur inside the Octagon, but as he told the The Mac Life, he believes Alvarez’ shortcomings were orchestrated by the Dubliner.
“When I was watching the fight I knew it was a wrap. Alvarez spoke about how he didn’t implement his gameplan. No, you did. This is something when you fight Conor, he shuts your game down.”
“He’s the predator and you feel like the prey. He shuts you down. He paralyses you. Any move you make, he is landing and hurting you. You don’t even want to move. You’re just in survival mode and that’s exactly what happened to Eddie Alvarez.”
