UFC lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez is very confident ahead of his UFC 205 title defense against Conor McGregor.
Eddie Alvarez isn’t scared of Conor McGregor. And he’s not afraid to throw trash talk right back at the brash Irishman. The UFC lightweight champion will look to prevent McGregor from becoming the first man to hold two UFC belts at the same time when they face off at UFC 205, and he sounds very confident in the lead-up to the bout in New York. As a guest on the Talking Brawls podcast, Alvarez had a lot to say about the featherweight champ and his style (transcribed by Jed Meshew of MMA Fighting):
“He’s single-handedly picked the best style matchups for himself all throughout his reign in the UFC. If you look carefully, you understand that this guy hasn’t put himself against a guy that can threaten him on the ground. The only one he’s done that against is Chad Mendes on late notice because he had to. Other than that, he fought off stand up fighters who don’t do ground attacks at all. So he got to be able to be himself and not have to adjust ever to anybody else’s strengths.”
That part might be a little debatable – Jose Aldo definitely could have threatened him on the ground for example, though he has primarily liked to strike – but I guess Alvarez is talking about wrestlers more than anything. He continued:
“I’ll do whatever the f*ck I want in any aspect against him. The opponents he’s fought allow him to look great. That’s the issue. That’s what these WWF fans who follow him don’t see. They see a guy who’s fighting or playing to his strengths so he can do what he wants and be good at it.
“I’ll do whatever the f**k I want. If I want to stand, I’ll stand. He don’t move his head, he gets hit a ton. Chad Mendes has a tiny little reach and was popping him all over the place with overhand rights and left hooks before he took him down. His defense is atrocious. His offense is good. He’s offensively a good fighter when it comes to boxing and things but his defense is f**king terrible.
“A guy like me, I can go wherever. I can kick, I can punch, I can take down, I can submit, and I can do it all f**king night.”
…
“I think I hit him with a hard, clean f**king shot, he goes down and I submit him. He gets hit with every left hook you throw. I could close my eyes and hit his big ass head.”
Those are certainly strong statements. Then again, he’s facing off with the king of strong statements, so it probably doesn’t hurt to be brash himself. We’ll see if Eddie can hit him as much as he thinks he can when they face off on November 12th in MSG.