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Eddie Alvarez journey through the ONE Championship Grand Prix has come to an unfortunate end.
Eddie Alvarez has been forced to bow out of the ONE Championship Lightweight World Grand Prix finals.
Founder and CEO of ONE Championship Chatri Sityodtong informed the world that Alvarez has been forced out of the Grand Prix with an injury. “Eddie Alvarez has pulled out of the ONE Lightweight World Grand Prix due to injury,” Sityodtong tweeted on Thursday.
NEWS ALERT: Eddie Alvarez has pulled out of the ONE Lightweight World Grand Prix due to injury. ONE Lightweight World Champion Christian Lee has agreed to step into the finals of the ONE Lightweight World Grand Prix to face Saygid Arslanaliev on Oct 13 in Tokyo at ONE: Century!!!
— Chatri Sityodtong (@yodchatri) September 26, 2019
Filling in for Alavrez is the promotion’s lightweight champion, Christian Lee (12-3). Lee has agreed to step in and face Saygid Arslanaliev (8-1) in the finals. Lee and Arslanaliev will fight in Toyko on Oct. 13 (Oct. 12 in North America) at the ONE: Century event.
My apologies, I am gutted , I can hold my head up and say with all honesty I gave this opportunity my all . I wanted this as bad as anything I ever wanted but for some reason it’s not my time right now . It’s time to rest and heal and come back stronger .
— Eddie Alvarez (@Ealvarezfight) September 26, 2019
Alvarez’s ONE Championship debut had a rocky start after he was TKOed by Timofey Nastyukhin a little over four-minutes into the first-round of their quarterfinal fight. He made a triumphant return to the Lightweight Grand Prix, however, after Nastyukhin was forced out with an injury. Alvarez went on to submit Eduard Folayang at 2:16 of round one after suffering early adversity.
Fellow UFC defect Demetrious Johnson is scheduled to fight Danny Kingad in the ONE Championship Grand Prix finals.