Eddie Alvarez is one of the most experienced MMA fighters on the planet. You could also argue that he doesn’t get the respect he deserves because his record is outstanding. First of all, he was the first fighter to have won championships in Bellator and the UFC. He’s also beaten eight former champions including Justin Gaethje and Rafael Dos Anjos.
Gaethje is one of the most interesting names on his record because the pair fought out a brutal war when they clashed in 2017. They fought a brutal war with Alvarez landing a ferocious knee to win by KO. Since then, they’ve gone on very different paths. Alvarez now fights for ONE Championship, while Gaethje is the UFC interim lightweight champion.
However, despite ‘The Highlight’s’ recent success, Alvarez still believes that Conor McGregor would beat him. ‘The Underground King’ says that the Irishman’s boxing is just too good. Alvarez famously lost his title to ‘The Notorious’ after a clinical beating in 2016.
Too Good
In short, Alvarez believes that Gaetje’s style of fighting would count against him. While his striking is far more measured than before, he thinks that McGregor is too slick for him. Because of this, the Notorious would catch Gaethje and knock him out. T sum up, it’s a balanced opinion from ‘The Underground King.’
“I think a knockout (for McGregor),” Alvarez told The Score. “I was able to catch (Gaethje) quite a bit with punches, and you watch, Dustin (Poirier) was able to box him a little bit.
The thing with Justin, if I thought he was going to implement a ground game and go in there and take Conor McGregor down and put him against the cage and do what Khabib did, or do what I intended to do, if he was going to implement that game, I would say, ‘Justin is going to do really well against him. Just standing for standing, is what I feel like it’ll end up being, there’s just too many mistakes Justin would end up making and Conor would be able to kind of capitalize.”
Mandatory Credit: USA TODAY Sports
Nasty Nate
However, Daniel Cormier expects Gaethje to fight Khabib Nurmagamedov. This is a fight that makes sense because it would be for the official championship. But the question is, who does that leave McGregor with? In sum, ‘DC’ thinks that the Nate Diaz trilogy fight makes sense. He told ESPN:
“If Khabib’s fighting Gaethje in September. Conor fights in July vs ‘Big Nate’, ‘Nasty Nate’, the third fight… This is the one. It’s the only one that makes sense on Fight Island.”
Mandatory Credit: USA TODAY Sports
Uncertain
Things do look less certain right now though. Khabib is stuck in Russia with three factors inhibiting his quick return. First of all, he has to complete Ramadan. Then he has to get out of his country. However, the final reason is the most unfortunate and saddening.
Khabib’s father Abdulmanap is very sick. He’s in a medically induced coma. We wish all the best to the champion and his father and hope that he recovers soon. The MMA world is behind him.
