Eddie Alvarez Breaks Silence on Conor Mcgregor Loss

Eddie Alvarez posted an emotional message to his Instagram followers recently, clearly upset with his performance at UFC 205. In particular, Alvarez seems disappointed with his failure to stick to his gameplan, which was to move left and utilize his wrestling.

Shortly after the fight was announced, Alvarez stated to the media that he planned to use his wrestling to defeat Conor, so it wasn’t something he was making a secret of. Come fight time however, he failed to execute the plan.

Congrats to Connor and his camp on an amazing accomplishment , these guys continue to deliver ,hats off to you fellas . As for my performance , the only thing I can honestly say was I fucking blew it … I did nothing I trained , I did the complete opposite of what we planned on a daily basis for 10 weeks . To sum up our plan in a sentence it was “Go left and mostly wrestle ” instead I circled into his left hand and mostly boxed . Fighting the way I did was a for sure death sentence and the result was fitting . I say it all the time, there is really small margin for error at this level and I paid for my mistakes . I managed to make it to the biggest stage and audience in my long career and fucked it all up when I arrived , my heart sincerely hurts and when I dwell on it I fill up with regret and anger . If there was a list of what not to do against an Opponent of this nature I did them all on Saturday . I am disappointed in myself and this is not a reflection of my coaches , training Partners , and the endless hours of training I commit to this sport . Every Time I get into the cage I negotiate being vulnerable and possibly embarrassed against the opportunity to do something great and Grow more . I always choose the latter regardless of the uncomfortability and anxiety it brings to me , I think this choice is the only reason I ever succeeded in the first place . I thought in my head at least making a lot of money would make me happy but I am having a lot of trouble enjoying myself regardless of the check thats going to be written , I am very uneasy and discontent for the most part . I am lucky to have my wife and my child at a time like this to help me laugh and smile and let me know everything’s gonna be all right , they are my saving Grace , without them I am a shell of a man . Besides the outcome I thoroughly enjoyed fight week and the lead up , it was a lot fun . I have never defined myself off one win and I’ll never define myself off one loss ,I simply had a bad night .. I’ll have the opportunity again to have a good one ,, and I’ll make the Walk to see what I got Everytime . Thanx for listening -EA

A photo posted by Eddie Alvarez (@ealvarezfight) on Nov 15, 2016 at 7:20am PST

It’s something that has happened often inside the octagon; a fighter abandoning their gameplan when something about their opponent surprises them. In this case it was Conor’s left hand and takedown defence that caused Alvarez to stray from his strategy.

Eddie Alvarez’s Abandoned Strategy

If Eddie’s plan was to “go left and mainly wrestle” he forgot this literally 10 seconds into the fight. To start the round he charged out and planted himself in front of Conor, but remembered to start moving left shortly after throwing a leg kick. He makes a few attempts to move left in the opening minute, but he mainly just stood in front of Conor and threw an occasional leg kick.

At 1:02 of the first round, Conor landed a left that dropped Eddie for the first time. Alvarez popped up fast but you could see he was shaken. He went for his first takedown attempt at 30 seconds later and Conor just pushed him off like he was nothing. Having his takedown defended so easily was probably an even bigger confidence killer for him than getting knocked down just seconds before.

Alvarez got knocked down for a second time at 1:54 of the 1st round, getting tagged with a left after rushing in. Conor knocked him down for a third time at 2:11, landing a left as Eddie was standing right in front of him. Alvarez went for another takedown with a minute and a half left in the round, but again got nowhere with it.

Alvarez got clipped early in the 2nd round, and again had a takedown easily thwarted. With just over 3 minutes to go in the 2nd round he did manage to push Conor up against the fence for a bit, but again was not able to secure the takedown. Conor got free and a few moments later landed a combo that ended the fight.

Did Eddie Alvarez Abandon His Gameplan?

So if Alvarez had stuck to his gameplan could things have gone differently? In this case it wasn’t so much that Eddie abandoned his strategy as it was that his strategy was never going to work in the first place. Perhaps on some level Alvarez realized this.

Conor easily prevented Alvarez from turning this into a wrestling match every time a takedown was attempted. If Alvarez’s game-plan was to “mostly wrestle” he never stood a chance. In fact, no matter what his game-plan was, his chances here were slim.