Former UFC lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez will be coaching against his next opponent Justin Gaethje on this season of the Ultimate Fighter. Although the UFC has yet to announce a date and location for their upcoming fight, Alvarez says he is relishing the challenge.
Following his loss to Conor McGregor at UFC 205 in November, Alvarez’s most recent bout came against Dustin Poirier earlier this year. The fight ended in a no contest after the former UFC champion landed illegal knees to end the bout. Now, Alvarez wants to get back to get number one contender spot and says the road back to the top starts against Gaethje.
“Whether I won or lost, didn’t matter to me,” Alvarez told SevereMMA.“I was about putting myself in a position for a world title. You know what I mean. I wanted to make sure that I fought the proper guys to do that. So, I want to continue to do that and with a guy like Justin who everybody is pushing and have there eyes on. Knocking a guy out like him and then maybe getting a number one contender [fight]. That’s my goal now, to put Justin away. Get one of the number one contenders, put them away, and my title back. I won’t rest until I do.“
Alvarez made it known that he believes the upcoming UFC lightweight interim title fight at UFC 216 between Kevin Lee and Tony Ferguson is “odd.” He went into detail as to why he is perplexed that the fight was made.
“I don’t even know what that fight is. I don’t know what happened there. Out of nowhere they made an interim belt, and had Lee fight Ferguson. This is very odd for me, what went on there? You know. I don’t know what went on there.“
“I’m going to fight Justin and work my way back to a number one contender and stuff like that. And then out of nowhere, they put up a belt and then put them two guys to fight for it. I’m like… the guy (Lee) beats Michael Chiesa, and he gets a title shot. That was very odd for me. You know what I mean? I had to fight Donald Cerrone, Anthony Pettis, Gil Melendez, Rafael Dos Anjos. I had to fight these guys in order to prove myself in order to get a title shot. This guy won against a TUF winner, and then he gets a title shot. It was very weird for me to see that. “
UFC 216 is set to take place on October 7th at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. The preliminary card will air on the promotion’s streaming service, UFC Fight Pass, as well as FOX Sports 1. The main card will be broadcasted on PPV. The main event for the upcoming show has yet to be officially announced.
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