Eddie Alvarez refutes notion that all the best fighters are competing in UFC: ‘It’s complete crap’

[vgff]

It's strange ever since Edgy Alvarez left UFC all he does is talk about UFC!

how is that strange? if spoke like this while being under contract withe the UFC he would be cut

 

[BEATDOWNS]

how is that strange? if spoke like this while being under contract withe the UFC he would be cut

Maybe he should talk about his new promotion and stop acting like a broken hearted ex girlfriend.

 

[IloveTHIS]

Lets see how good those guys outside of the UFC look under USADA

 

[KeepItRealist]

What else is he going to say?

Yes, I wasn't good enough to be a top fighter in the UFC anymore, so I came to Asia to get paid for joke three-round Grand Prix's where 2x losers end up in the final? And people get title shots after two wins over guys not ranked in the world top 300?

 

[Xoleth]

UFC has the best fighters, but of course there are exceptions in Bellator, One and not only.
Stop bringing the PEDs argument since USADA is a joke.

For example, Magny and Pettis are ranked at WW.
Rory, Lima, Ruth, Larkin, maybe even old Fitch and Neiman Gracie could beat them.

At MW, Hall, Carlos Jr, Tavares, Brunson and others could easily loose to Moose, Lovato and even Carvalho, Schlemenko, Nsang

ONE championship has no drug testing so they look better. Eddie is just bitter Conor and Dustin embarrassed him.

He doesn't seem bitter at all in this interview.
Maybe you are just a moron who likes to bash fighters for no reason because something lacks in your life.

 

[KBE6EKCTAH_CCP]

“That whole theory is crap that everybody who’s the best is a UFC guy,” Alvarez said when speaking to MMA Fighting. “It’s complete crap because I was the guy who didn’t fight in the UFC. I went there and won the belt. I beat arguably the best lightweight in that history. [Rafael dos Anjos] at the time was killing everyone. Like literally murdering the who’s who. So to go to the UFC, win the belt and be a guy from the outside that never fought there, I’m the guy you’re talking about.

“I wasn’t a UFC fighter per se but I went there and I won the world title. If I could do it, isn’t it true that anybody from the outside could possibly go there and win the title? It’s not arguable. It’s fact. The best fighters in the world, they’re all over and they’re virtually unknown.”

“As a fight fan myself, it’s clear that the level of striking is easily in the favor of ONE Championship. That can’t even be argued,” Alvarez said. “When you watch ONE Championship, and when you watch what goes on in the Muay Thai bouts and even the MMA bouts, the striking is vastly better in ONE Championship.”

ONE Championship has a strict set of rules when it comes to weight cutting for its athletes, which essentially means athletes are competing up a division while still technically fighting at a weight class below. In other words, Alvarez is fighting at 170 pounds, which would mean he’s a welterweight in most promotions but in ONE Championship that makes him a lightweight.

Alvarez has faced that type of adversity in his first two fights where both Nastyukhin and Folayang were visibly bigger than him but he knew that would be a problem on the day he signed with ONE Championship and opted to compete in the lightweight division.

“It’s an adjustment that I agreed to. The guys are bigger. My opponents are bigger but they’ve also been fighting in ONE Championship and made that adjustment for years,” Alvarez explained. “I am just now making that adjustment to fighting at a high grade at 170. I’m not going to come in as the biggest 170-pounder. There are advantages and disadvantages to that. I can sit here and say ‘oh they’re bigger’ or I can focus on the good things like I’ll be more conditioned because they have to move around more weight or I’m faster because they’re more muscular. There are pros and cons.

“Being bigger doesn’t always correspond to being better. I’m a true believer that fights aren’t won in a size discrepancy. Fights are won and lost in the spirit of the two guys inside the cage.”

https://www.mmafighting.com/platfor...&utm_source=twitter&__twitter_impression=true

Stopped reading at "literally murdering".

 

[dmwalking]

His logic is hard to deny if you choose to deny it. He also got smoked in his title defense, but he still proves the point that he was one of the best in the world because he was able to get that belt. And then someone else not from the UFC was able to smoke him. So yeah, I'm sure there is a world beater out there that just hasn't gotten into the UFC yet. And maybe they never will.

 

[dmwalking]

The UFC has the deepest talent pool, but the top 5 in Bellator and One could definitely hang with their counterparts in the UFC.

If you say the UFC has the best fighters as in deeper talent pool, then yeah. UFC maybe has the majority of the best fighters. But that doesn't necessarily mean that they have ALL the best fighters. Still plenty of great guys outside the octagon.

 

[Hellowhosthat]

Eddie is right...I have said this for the last 15 years...t-wood became champ after coming from strikeforce as well as DC and Luke just to name a few.......dana has always been a con man to the those who are uneducated in MMA

That's how it works though, the UFC absorbs most of the best guys from othet promotions. Some of them they get from the regional circuit, some they get from other major organisations. People aren't making their debuts in the UFC so they have to come from somewhere.

 

[listrahtes]

ONE championship has no drug testing so they look better. Eddie is just bitter Conor and Dustin embarrassed him.

Oh they do test the fighters and then they decide which fighter tests positive and which not

 

[mkt]

His logic is hard to deny if you choose to deny it..

He's obviously biased now that he's out of the UFC. I've already disproved his "logic" with irrefutable math. He was 9-1 in Bellator and 4-3 in the UFC. Jake Shields, Hector Lombard, Will Brooks and others had even bigger changes to their win-loss ratio when you compare pre and post-UFC.

 

[leto1776]

people throw around journeyman and gatekeeper alot now adays. eddie has won a title in every major org hes been in. i know fighter records arnt everything, but hes been in 37 fights. hes hand his raised 30 times. hes better than people who arnt considered journeyman.

Majority of people on here have no clue what the word gatekeeper means, because they don’t follow other sports. They know it’s a derogative term in boxing, so throw it around at everyone with a less than perfect record. Meanwhile, they look like morons to those of us that know what a real gatekeeper is. Case in point: everyone on the same page as your post that used the word.

 

[Th3Sav4ge]

Majority of people on here have no clue what the word gatekeeper means, because they don’t follow other sports. They know it’s a derogative term in boxing, so throw it around at everyone with a less than perfect record. Meanwhile, they look like morons to those of us that know what a real gatekeeper is. Case in point: everyone on the same page as your post that used the word.

i dont know were anymore but you can change your settings. i do 50 posts per page that way you arnt sifting through 7-10 page threads. this thread is only 2 pages for me.

 

[dmwalking]

He's obviously biased now that he's out of the UFC. I've already disproved his "logic" with irrefutable math. He was 9-1 in Bellator and 4-3 in the UFC. Jake Shields, Hector Lombard, Will Brooks and others had even bigger changes to their win-loss ratio when you compare pre and post-UFC.

If you say ufc has better fighters in terms of depth, I’d say you’re right. They have the most top tier fighters. But do they have every single best fighter? That’s not likely considering how many outsiders who haven’t started in the UFC have come to the UFC and won the title.

I think he’s trying to state the latter.

 

[dmwalking]

people throw around journeyman and gatekeeper alot now adays. eddie has won a title in every major org hes been in. i know fighter records arnt everything, but hes been in 37 fights. hes hand his raised 30 times. hes better than people who arnt considered journeyman.

I agree that records aren’t everything, but his resume is excellent. I’ve never been a hardcore fan of him, but I can’t deny his resume. He’s beaten legit champs in multiple divisions. It’s silly to call a multiple time champion a journeyman or gatekeeper. That’s casual fan talk.

 

[JustOnce]

“That whole theory is crap that everybody who’s the best is a UFC guy,” Alvarez said when speaking to MMA Fighting. “It’s complete crap because I was the guy who didn’t fight in the UFC. I went there and won the belt. I beat arguably the best lightweight in that history. [Rafael dos Anjos] at the time was killing everyone. Like literally murdering the who’s who. So to go to the UFC, win the belt and be a guy from the outside that never fought there, I’m the guy you’re talking about.

“I wasn’t a UFC fighter per se but I went there and I won the world title. If I could do it, isn’t it true that anybody from the outside could possibly go there and win the title? It’s not arguable. It’s fact. The best fighters in the world, they’re all over and they’re virtually unknown.”

“As a fight fan myself, it’s clear that the level of striking is easily in the favor of ONE Championship. That can’t even be argued,” Alvarez said. “When you watch ONE Championship, and when you watch what goes on in the Muay Thai bouts and even the MMA bouts, the striking is vastly better in ONE Championship.”

ONE Championship has a strict set of rules when it comes to weight cutting for its athletes, which essentially means athletes are competing up a division while still technically fighting at a weight class below. In other words, Alvarez is fighting at 170 pounds, which would mean he’s a welterweight in most promotions but in ONE Championship that makes him a lightweight.

Alvarez has faced that type of adversity in his first two fights where both Nastyukhin and Folayang were visibly bigger than him but he knew that would be a problem on the day he signed with ONE Championship and opted to compete in the lightweight division.

“It’s an adjustment that I agreed to. The guys are bigger. My opponents are bigger but they’ve also been fighting in ONE Championship and made that adjustment for years,” Alvarez explained. “I am just now making that adjustment to fighting at a high grade at 170. I’m not going to come in as the biggest 170-pounder. There are advantages and disadvantages to that. I can sit here and say ‘oh they’re bigger’ or I can focus on the good things like I’ll be more conditioned because they have to move around more weight or I’m faster because they’re more muscular. There are pros and cons.

“Being bigger doesn’t always correspond to being better. I’m a true believer that fights aren’t won in a size discrepancy. Fights are won and lost in the spirit of the two guys inside the cage.”

https://www.mmafighting.com/platfor...&utm_source=twitter&__twitter_impression=true

True, look at Eddie. He fought there. He wasn't much to write home about.

 

[Herwald]

There are far too many moving parts to make an argument as simplistic as this. No one's peaking at the same time, no one has the same path to the title in the same kind of talent pool. To take one or two outsiders who did fine in the UFC just isn't substantial. You need to zoom out and look at the big picture, what usually happens and what usually happens is these outside hype jobs shit the bed and trail off when in UFC.

And, not for nothing, yeah - wen you were great, you got in the UFC and became the champ. Once you weren't good enough anymore, you had to leave. I mean... Yeah? How does this help your argument that the best don't fight in the UFC?

 

[MescalineDreams]

He is right. But why is he talking like he was the best fighter in the division? He was Michael Bisping of LW division. He got beat by conor and dustin. Khabib and tony would beat him too. Khabib beat RDA before him and Tony right after him. Eddie was just in the right place at the right time. Just like Bisping in MW.

Eddie was a top fighter long before he got to the UFC

Back when Bendo was champ, then you had Thomson, Melendez and a few others.. Alvarez was right there with them. Arguably even #1 himself among them for quite a while

He beat RDA because he's the superior boxer and his wrestling is good enough to avoid being taken down. It was a good matchup for him

His fights against Dustin were as close as they can possibly get, could've went either way and that's an Eddie who was already likely on the tail end of his career

Smoked Gaethje in prob his most impressive fight in the UFC. Far more impressively than Dustin did.

Eddie might be past it now but he was a very legit well rounded fighter for a long time

Bisping won the title but he wasn't even a top 10 MW on the planet outside of that. All due respect

Calling him the LW bisping is just beyond retarded

 

[leto1776]

i dont know were anymore but you can change your settings. i do 50 posts per page that way you arnt sifting through 7-10 page threads. this thread is only 2 pages for me.

I do 20/page

 

[phatron]

Bisping won the title but he wasn't even a top 10 MW on the planet outside of that. All due respect

Bisping beat Silva and Rockhold back to back and you can say he wasn't top10 with a straight face?

Silva had literally just fought weidman for the title and Rockhold was champ and on a 5 fight win streak when bisping beat him....so dont give me none of the "they were out of their primes" non-sense.