EDDIE ALVAREZ IS now 32 and he has the same number of professional bouts under his belt, having competed in six different countries over a 13-year professional career for leading promotions such as BodogFight, Dream, Bellator and the UFC.
However, four months since he got his hands on a UFC belt, Alvarez is adamant that the best is yet to come. His first defence of the lightweight title is still eight days away, but the Philadephia native has plans for it that extend beyond UFC 205 and the biggest fight of his career to date against Conor McGregor at Madison Square Garden.
“I’ve fought all over the world, I’ve fought the best guys in the world. Fighting was never like a job for me, it was always an opportunity. I never really looked at it as, ‘Maybe this will work out financially’. I wasn’t ever sure. I knew I just loved what I was doing,” said Alvarez on a UFC media conference call.
‘For me, I made a lot of promises to a lot of people earlier in my career, and just to be able to get the UFC title, get to the pay-per-view, get to the biggest event in MSG [Madison Square Garden], it’s a dream come true. The time is here and I’m excited about it.
I think we have the right guy in front us to do some big things.”
Alvarez doesn’t believe that McGregor — who has only competed at featherweight and welterweight since joining the UFC in 2013 — is worthy of a lightweight title shot, but he was never going to shy away from an opportunity to make McGregor money at the top of what is being billed as the biggest event in UFC history.
According to Alvarez, once this fight with McGregor is out of the way, he’ll move on to facing the leading contenders in the 155lbs division, with the likes of Khabib Nurmagomedov, Tony Ferguson and Rafael Dos Anjos among those in pursuit.
When asked about his long-term goals, Alvarez said: “I will go down as the best lightweight in UFC history. That’s what I’ll go down as. It’ll start with him [McGregor], but then I’ll make UFC great again and continue to fight the number one guys who belong here.
I sincerely feel and felt I deserved a break. This will be my break and then we’ll get back to some real shit.
“We’ll get back to fighting the real number one contenders who fight the best guys and earn their way to the title, not the guys who have a funny accent and sell tickets.”
McGregor has said that he’ll score a first-round knockout of Alvarez next weekend, but the defending champion insists that the challenger doesn’t truly believe in this particular prophecy, despite his track record of accurate forecasts.
“Regardless of what’s said to the media, I think it’s known to him and his camp what I possess and what I can do,” Alvarez said. “I don’t need to say much. I just needed him to sign the paper. I wanted him badly to sign the paper. Now that the paper is signed, the deal is done for me. My preparation is done, my plan is set and I’m ready to execute on 12 November.”
