Meet Eddie Alvarez, the man hoping to crush Conor McGregor’s hopes of making UFC history.
Stats: 32-years-old. His 5′ 9″ stature makes him the same height as Conor McGregor, and his 40-inch leg reach also equals the Notorious. However, McGregor (74 in) holds a five-inch reach advantage over the American (69 in).
Record: 28-4, 3-1 UFC. 15 of his wins came by way of knockout, seven were submission victories while six went the distance. He’s had just the one knockout loss, he’s been submitted twice, has seen one judges’ decisions go against him and he’s won 13 of his last 15 fights.
He made his professional debut on December 14 2003, knocking out Anthony Ladonna in the first round under the Ring of Combat banner.
Gym: Ricardo Almeida BJJ, New Jersey
Notable training partners: Former UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar, top UFC lightweight contender Edson Barboza, World Series of Fighting bantamweight champion Marlon Moraes, Undefeated UFC women’s bantamweight Katlyn Chookagian. Multi-title winning.
Achievements: Two-time National Prep All-American.
He’s also been the champion of pretty much every organisation he’s fought for. Two-time Bellator lightweight champion, BodogFIGHT welterweight champion, MFC welterweight champion, Reality Fighting welterweight champion. In his own words, not being a champion doesn’t feel right to him.
Hometown: Kensington, Philladelphia. Film buffs will recognise it as the crime-ridden neighbourhood in which Rocky was shot.
As a kid, Alzarez used to walk down the streets with a pair of boxing gloves knocking on his friends’ doors to see if any of them wanted a street fight. His description of Kensington during Ariel Helwani’s magnificent interview should give you an idea of the type of place it is.
“If (Philadelphia) were the Lion King, this (neighbourhood) would be the Elephant Graveyard. This is where you don’t go, where the sun don’t shine.”
Biggest win: Although he has numerous impressive scalps in his trophy cabinet, his UFC belt-winning performance against Rafael dos Anjos is arguably the most spectacular of them all.
The Brazilian came into the bout off the back of a five-fight win-streak, an incredible feat considering 155 is the most populated and arguably the most stacked division in the world’s largest MMA promotion. RDA was the favourite having beaten the likes of Benson Henderson and Anthony Pettis to claim the title before successfully defending the belt by annihilating Donald Cerrone in just 66 seconds.
However, just like he always does, Alvarez turned up to fight and had his gaze firmly focused on the last belt he needed to complete his collection. He began gaining momentum by cracking RDA with blistering combinations early and eventually laid on so much damage that Herb Dean was forced to step in and award him the TKO victory at 3:49 of the first round.
The win marked only the second time RDA had been finished by strikes in his entire career and a little bit of trivia that you won’t hear on any of the UFC 205 promos is that it made Alvarez the first fighter to have won titles in both the UFC and Bellator.
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Other notable wins: Former UFC lightweight champion Anthony Pettis (decision), former Strikeforce lightweight champion Gilbert Melendez (decision), current Bellator lightweight champion Michael Chandler (split decision), former DREAM lightweight champion and current ONE lightweight king Shinya Aoki (TKO), perpetual Bellator lightweight contender Patricky Freire (KO), former Bellator featherwight champion Pat Curran (decision), former Shooto lightweight champion Tatsuya Kawajiri (TKO).
Last defeat: Donald Cerrone at UFC 178, December 27, 2014. Entering into the promotion as a champion of “another organisation”, Alvarez was given a tough debut fight against one of the most dangerous strikers in the division.
The duo went toe-to-toe for a 15-minute war, with the judges awarding the fight to Cowboy by unanimous decision (29-28 x3). Cerrone started slow and Alvarez utilised his sharper boxing to take the first round. However, Cerrone was more comfortable, found his rhythm better than his opponent and outworked Alvarez to take the next two rounds.
Strengths: We’ll go into more detail in a future article, but for now we’ll keep it general.
Alvarez is as complete a martial artist as you’ll find. He’s a gifted wrestler who’s been boxing since he was a kid. Add that to the fact Mark Henry is his striking coach and Ricardo Almeida takes care of the grappling aspect of his game, it is arguable that he will be the most well-rounded fighter Conor McGregor has been matched against, aside from maybe Jose Aldo.
Some of Alvarez’s other biggest attributes are his toughness, his fight IQ and his experience. He’s held multiple belts throughout his career and has fought in countries such as Japan, Canada, Costa Rica and Russia.
Prior to entering the UFC, Alvarez was regarded as one of the most aggressive strikers on the planet, but since moving up to the big leagues, he has adopted a more reserved, intelligent approach to the sport in order to secure the win. He admitted in that Helwani interview that he has tried to find the right balance between entertaining the fans and making sure his hand gets raised.
Judging by his last fight against RDA, he may very well have perfected the art.
Catch up on the first episode of Football Friday Live…
