Eddie Alvarez is definitely a strong fighter inside the cage. With a background in wrestling, Alvarez is able to dominate each of his fight with grit. His talent in grappling helped him a lot in winning over former MMA Champ Anthony Pettis last UFC Fight Night 81 by split decision.
In a recent interview, Alvarez revealed the secret to surviving the lightweight division: diversity. The MMA veteran said that being able to switch things up makes a fighter stand out, especially since there are a lot of new fighters coming in. Each new fighter has a striking talent that gives him an edge against all the other MMA fighters.
“You know, I think it’s a matter of keeping guys guessing. In this division, you can’t be one-dimensional. You can’t only have one trick. MMA is becoming a lot of these new school karate guys who have no ground. I felt like there are a lot of guys who are being pushed that way. They’re these karate guys with karate backgrounds and they’ve never been to a jiu-jitsu class, they’ve never wrestled for any club at all. They do a lot of fancy flip kicks and stuff like that that aren’t really effective in a fundamental fight. I feel like it’s my job, and a couple of other old school veterans’ job, to beat these guys out and let people know that the flashy stuff doesn’t work in a real, fundamental fight,” Alvarez said.
Alvarez further said that his talent of fighting through the adversity is his edge and he is proud of it. He even said that this is an ultimate proof that he is really a fighter.
“There’s a lot of athletes – and I say this all the time – MMA is full of athletes. But there’s very few fighters. I pride myself on being a fighter. I’m a good athlete, I can do things well. I’m an athletic guy. But I don’t pride myself on being an athlete, I’m a fighter. That’s one thing that I excel at. If the MMA math doesn’t add up to a lot of people, it’s a lot of intangibles that beat my opponents, not just a skill set,” he said.
Alvarez further said that he will definitely just wait on the sidelines. He wants to fight whoever will win between Rafael dos Anjos and Conor McGregor this coming UFC 196.
“I’m not saying I’m sitting out. I’ve got my eyes on fighting again if we’re not given a title shot. But I definitely want to see what goes down on March 5. I’m interested in what goes down on March 5. I have a good idea of what could happen and I think I want to be active. I don’t want to wait another seven or eight months if that’s what it takes to get a title shot, I want to get my hands on an opponent. But it can’t just be any opponent. I don’t want to fight a guy who is No. 20. I didn’t come in the UFC to fight a guy who is No. 20 or something like that. I want to fight the best guys. So, it has to be one of the guys who are the best, who are considered the best. And it has to be a big fight,” Alvarez added.