“Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.”
So said boxing great Mike Tyson on how he used to conquer strategists who’d believed that they’d concocted the perfect gameplan to combat the heavyweight’s style.
More often than not, those opponents would end up on their back with the referee cradling their heads as they were brought back to consciousness.
Now-former UFC lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez can’t really remember how his title fight against new two-weight world champion Conor McGregor came to a close but he believes he knows where he went wrong and it all came down to being taken out of his strategy after being clipped, just as Tyson philosophised.
“I didn’t fight a good fight,” Alvarez told Megan Olivi after the bout.
“I went in with a plan but I didn’t stick to the plan and I think I paid for it.
“It was more to kick and wrestle, not to box so much or to throw so many hands, but I kind of got lulled a bit into his game and paid for it.
“It was kind of relaxed and I was like ‘Alright it’s going to be relaxed. We’ll do it that way.’
“I almost got lulled into his pace and got out of my own pace. He did a good job and hats off to him.”
It was ultimately the left hand of ‘The Notorious’ that led to Alvarez’s downfall in Madison Square Garden and Alvarez was predictably asked whether or not the rumours about McGregor’s devastating combination of power and precision was as devastating as is made out.
But he singled out the speed of the punches as the main factor.
“I think I threw a shot and he came over the top because I don’t even remember really,” Alvarez said.
“I just remember being on the floor and thinking ‘Wow that was quick, whatever that was it was fast.’
“I don’t feel it hurt me like crazy, it was kind of a flash and I’ve been there before so I was OK with it.
“I just boxed too much tonight. Too much boxing!”
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