Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) lightweight titleholder Rafael dos Anjos will put his title on the line against featherweight import Conor McGregor at the upcoming UFC 197 pay-per-view (PPV) event, which takes place on March 5, 2016 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The Brazilian will either implement his ground game and make the Irishman look stupid, or try to stand and bang and get KTFO.
That’s according to lightweight No. 1 contender Eddie Alvarez, who told The MMA Hour how frustrating it is to watch guys fight McGregor and employ the wrong gameplan, which is why “Notorious” has yet to be exposed in seven trips to the Octagon.
His words:
“There’s a simple way to win against this guy and nobody seems to be doing it. It’s really frustrating to watch. I feel like he’ll look foolish. I honestly feel it could be an embarrassment. It could be like everyone in the crowd going, ‘Wow, that was it? Why didn’t anybody else do that?’ It could be that surprising to people. That’s how I feel. We just haven’t seen him there. The guy hasn’t been in the fight we need to see him in. Nobody’s implemented an attack and when someone does, it’s over. This whole show’s over. The whole goddamn spectacle’s over. I don’t know why no one’s doing it. It’s very frustrating. For me, it’s a very simple fight for RDA to win, but he needs to implement a ground attack. If he doesn’t, I honestly feel like he can get knocked out, just like the other guys Conor was able to knock out.”
Alvarez was able to stifle Anthony Pettis using that same strategy.
Chad Mendes had early success using his wrestling attack at UFC 189, but ran out of gas in the second round and got stopped by way of Irish strikes. Alvarez blames that on “Money’s” short-notice and believes a full training camp would yield much different results.
That said, if McGregor beats Dos Anjos and this statement holds true, then Alvarez will have a chance to put his money where his mouth is.