At this stage, most of us have seen the footage of Conor McGregor working out in the same room as Eddie Alvarez at UFC 178.
September 2014 and McGregor was still making his way, and name, in the UFC.
Two short years ago and The Notorious was third on the fight card for an event headlined by flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson. Ahead of McGregor in the running order was Alvarez’ bout with Donald Cerrone. It was the last time Alvarez lost in the Octagon, dropping a unanimous decision to Cowboy.
After Alvarez’ lightweight title defence against McGregor was set for UFC 205, a clip emerged of both men warming up in close vicinity to each other.
During a live interview with BT Sport, Alvarez was asked about their close proximity and made a rather confusing statement. With a straight face, e commented:
“Yeah, he came up to me in the locker room and he asked me for an autograph. I told him, ‘No. Absolutely not.
“I turned him down and I think he was upset about that. Really upset.”
BT reporter Caroline Pearce definitely appeared to buy the tale for a few moments. However, soon pressed on his recollection of their first encounter, Alvarez said “Yeah” before starting to laugh and confirming it was just a joke.
“I told him to scram and get out of my face because i had things to do,” he added.
McGregor finally got Alvarez’ autograph on a bout agreement, last month, and is aiming to make Saturday’s fight anything but a laughing matter for The Underground King.
