This past weekend in the main event of UFC 205, UFC lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez was on the wrong side of a brutal TKO from Conor McGregor. For McGregor, who made UFC history with the win as the first man to simultaneously hold UFC titles in two weight classes, the win was not only a successful UFC lightweight debut, but an incredibly impressive win.
This week, Alvarez appeared on Chael Sonnen’s podcast to reflect on the loss, saying:
“I’m trying to keep occupied, I was in the midst of doing a move, in the midst of moving my house, so that’s keeping me occupied, keeping my mind off shit. When I begin to dwell on it, makes me sick a little bit…”
“It was the best time I ever had, fight week. Before we went out, even my coach Mark Henry, our warmups in the locker room, right before we went out to make the walk, was probably the best I ever looked warming up for a fight, getting ready. Most confidence, everything. When I try to make sense of this whole damn thing, it’s really awkward for me to sit back and think about. I don’t understand what went on.”
“The first minute, I landed three really hard, I took that he’s gonna stand in front of me, maybe counter-fight in the beginning. Kind of enforce his dominance, that he’s gonna be right there in front of me. So we did the low leg kick, not the high one, because the high one you can still counter with that left hand of his. So I did almost like a calf low leg kick, and they were successful, but I think on the third one, I might have went foot to shin, and had to shut it down. Couldn’t throw any more of them even though they were successful.”
“If we had to sum up the plan of this fight, it was. Simply…go left, and mostly wrestle. Not wrestle all the time, but go left, and mostly wrestle. Let’s put him in wrestling exchanges, and put him where he’s uncomfortable. I don’t know if it was after I got hit, but I kind of went into fight or flight mode or whatever you want to call it, but I got hit, and I went right and I boxed. I did the opposite of my plan for 8 minutes.”
So far there has been no word yet as to when Alvarez would like to return to the Octagon, or who he would like to fight next. Stay tuned for updates as they become available.