Eddie Alvarez Comments On What It’s Like To Be Hit By Conor McGregor
”The Notorious One’ Conor McGregor may have made history last night (Saturday November 12, 2016) by becoming the first fighter in UFC history to hold two titles simultaneously, but the man on the bitter end of that feat, Eddie Alvarez, will not be celebrating a victory after fight night in Madison Square Garden.
‘The Underground King’ was finished in the second round of his first career title defense by McGregor, after calling the Irishman out to throw-down following his lightweight title win over Rafael dos Anjos in July at UFC Fight Night 90.
Shortly after the contest with McGregor Alvarez caught up with Megan Olivi to discuss the loss, pointing to his inability to stick to he and his camp’s game-plan as a key reason for his loss:
“I’m disappointed,” Alvarez said. “I didn’t fight a good fight, I went in with a plan, didn’t stick to the plan, I think I paid for it. More to kick and wrestle, not to box so much, not to throw so many hands. Kind of got lulled a bit in his game, and I paid for it.”
When prompted if there was anything about McGregor’s demeanor during the fight that prompted him to keep the fight standing rather than take it to the ground, Alvarez claimed that the featherweight champion’s relaxation during the contest ‘lulled’ him into the Irishman’s pace:
“It was Conor being relaxed, and I was like ‘alright, it’s gonna be relaxed? We’ll do it that way.’ Almost got lulled into his pace and got out of my own pace. Did a good job, hats off to him.”
McGregor possesses some of the nastiest power in his left hand that the UFC’s featherweight division has seen in quite some time, and much was made of if that power would remain in the 10-pound climb up to 155-pounds. Those notions, however, were immediately answered as soon as the fight began, as ‘The Notorious One’ dropped Alvarez a number of times during the first and second rounds.
When asked what was going through his mind after feeling McGregor’s power in his left hand, Alvarez stated that he didn’t even remember being hit as he only recalls being on the floor and thinking to himself ‘that was quick’:
“The shot he hit me with, yeah, I think I threw a shot and he came over the top because I don’t even remember, I just remember being on the floor and I was like ‘wow that was quick, whatever that was it was fast.’ I didn’t feel like it hurt me, like, crazy. It was kind of a flash, and I’ve been there before. I was okay with it, but I just boxed too much, I boxed too much tonight. Too much boxing.”
Alvarez has been a champion in multiple organizations in which he has competed for, putting the cherry on top of his historic career with his vicious knockout of ‘RDA’ earlier this summer. With ‘The Underground King’ suffering only his second loss under the UFC banner, it should be interesting to see where he goes moving forward.
You can check out Alvarez’s interview with Olivi here below:
