(“C’mon bro, you’re a UFC fighter for Christ’s sake. If you start crying, you’ll never be able to show your face in this parlor again. You’ll be no better than Phil Baroni.” Photo via ami-james.)
It feels like its been eons since we’ve seen Thiago Alves in action, and by “in action,” we mean cutting down fighters young and old with leg kicks powerful enough to give even Cecil Peoples nightmares. Ever since suffering a last minute, come-from-behind submission defeat at the hands of Martin Kampmann last March, Alves has been forced to pull out of bouts with Siyar Bahadurzada and Matt Brown due to various injuries. In fact, Alves has hit something of a rough patch ever since fighting Georges “The Career Killer” St. Pierre at UFC 100, having dropped 3 of his past 5 contests and picking up wins over less-than-stellar competition.
Thankfully, none other than Ariel Helwani has passed along the news that Alves is finally healthy again and hoping to secure a fight at UFC 171: Jones vs. Teixeira.
Who would you like to see Alves paired up with in his return bout, Nation? Pyle? MacDonald? Paulo Odbelis?! Before you decide, let’s all just revel in the only Thiago Alves highlight reel that isn’t accompanied by a horrendous rap song after the jump.
(Props: Youtube user 92maxiboi)