Is Eddie Alvarez really a better win than Al Iaquinta?

[YellowBanenoo]

I don't think Eddie beats Pettis again. That was the worst performance I've ever seen in my life at LW. Eddie isn't a very good wrestler, he couldn't even get Pettis down.

He might wall and stall Nate to a lame ass decision but other than that he doesn't have a shot.

His only way to beat Nate, Pettis and Barboza is to literally wall and stall for 3 or 5 rounds.

You seeing the first fight as Eddie's worst performance doesn't justify your claim, which Eddie wouldn't win a rematch. Pettis has been fighting exactly the same way, and consequently has been beaten in the same fashion. At this point, It is very clear he doesn't know how to fix the hole in his game.

Eddie took down Pettis multiple times in that fight, da fuck you talking about ?lol

Eddie can wall and stall for days if he has to and he seemingly has done that in his previous fights to get the win.

 

[Dbreiden83080]

One of the worst things you can do is dismiss a champ when they won the belt.. Eddie was a guy that really fought his way up the ladder and he did it the hard way.. He spent years trying to get respect, fighting in smaller shows before he got to the UFC. He finally gets a shot at the UFC Gold after 31 fights and a 27-4 record and wins the belt by TKO. Then after losing to Conor, people want to dismiss him and his accomplishments.

 

[MittLivSomHund]

some khabib fan is delusional

 

[C0NCH3TO]

The wear and tear excuse doesn't hold true though. Eddie got into epic wars with Dustin, Justin, and Dustin again, and in none of those fights did he ever get downed early from punches like against Conor.

Eddie had 5 months in between his RDA and Conor fights, and he suffered almost zero damage vs RDA after blitzing him in the first round.

Aldo is another example of a Conor opponent whose chin was called into question. He went a full 5 rounds vs Frankie (albeit fighting very defensively), then B2B losses to Max where he absorbed lots of damage in each. In none of those subsequent fights after Conor did he suffer an early knockdown either.

Conversely, look at Nate Diaz who is known for his chin. When was the last time somebody knocked him down with punches in the first 2 rounds?

Everyone wants to discount Conor's punching power, which in MMA is deadly. Yes against a boxer, his punching is inefficient and amateurish. But you give that boxer MMA gloves and they're just as vulnerable as any pro MMA fighter.

I don't believe Khabib will play around and test his chin, so the questions are whether he can take shots going for takedowns or is Conor's TDD/BJJ good enough to stall and defend on the ground.

im not discounting Conor at all, bruh... In fact i even said in other post that what he has done is unheard of in mma. He would ktfo Aldo and Eddie at any point of their careers imo. Beating Aldo when he was undefeated for years and beating Eddie after he ktfo Rda and was coming off a great w streak is remarkable. That being said, you cant just be the same after a decade of wars and injuries. Even if you are given months to rest in between fights. We are human beings. The Aldo that fought Mcgregor is not WEC Aldo. Eddie carried lots of mileage and damage coming into that fight as well. They are long timers. Thats the way i look at it, we get old. Thats a crucial factor specially for small guys who rely heavily on reflexes, speed and explosiveness.

 

[SaigeVanZant]

Y’all must not really know who Eddie Alvarez is

They still don't

 

[Huligani]

I'd actually pick Al to TKO Alvarez.

 

[JKS]

Yes...the guy that KO'd RDA in his prime as champ and beat Pettis, Melendez, Pitbull, Aoki, Chandler, Kawajiri, Hansen over a course of 10 years and most recently KO'd Gaethje....not to mention was a UFC champ and Bellator champ is better than the guy who beat a few 10-15 ranked LWs and has never come close to holding a title.

Come on!

 

[LockardTheGOAT]

Uh, yeah.

Alvarez is a former world champion, Al isn't. Al also doesn't offer any worse problems for Conor stylistically than Eddie did.

 

[Airdack]

At that moment beating Eddie was huge for Mcg. Eddie is beatable though. Cerrone and Chandler did it as well. The thing with Eddie is that he came to the UFC at a point of his career where all the mileage, tear and wear was starting to show up little by little. McG would beat any version of his regardless, make no mistake.

Maybe now Al would look like a better win and he would probably smash him in a fight but looking at the time when Mcg beat him, he was the man to beat. Had the belt of the bigger division and was coming of a good winning streak.

Yep people saying he was gonna wrestle fuck mcg worse then pettis, probably get a tko or sub since mcg sucks at grappling. Gets dropped in the 1st min then has all his tds and cage work defended and was getting tagged of the clinch breaks.

Went froma guy who was gonna destroy mcg to some over the hill scrub who never had a chance.

Seems to be a pattern with mcg opponents.

 

[theheater]

Al Iaquinta stepped in to the cage with Khabib with 1 fight in the last 3 years (Diego Sanchez). Iaquinta was trained for a 3 round fight.

The people playing up Khabibs win and not concerned by his performance are out of their fucking minds

 

[thelittleman]

Dont forget that Eddie looked like shit in all those fights except the RDA one.

Those performances against Pettis and Giblert were absolute garbage. He should have lost both and should have never been given a titleshot to begin with.

Eddie fucking sucks.

Eddie definitely doesn't suck.

I did think that he lost the Gilbert fight though. If you saw my original list/pics of Eddie's most recent opponents, then you cannot deny that when he fought those guys, they were among the best in the lightweight division at that time. It is easy to dismiss some those fights/fighters now, because they may not have had the best record since their fight's with Eddie. But that would be a revisionist history. They were either Champions, recent ex-Champions, guys that had recently lost a Title fight, or guys that would soon have a Title fight. For any other fighter, those would have been huge fights at that time. He has been fed a steady diet of killers, and more often than not, he came out on top. He has been in some epic wars, often giving every single thing that he had, and that deserves respect. Certainly much more respect than many people on here give him

 

[BigGing]

Yes