Alvarez Talks McGregor: ‘I’ve Never Felt So Un-Threatened By Another Man’

When the light shines down on the main event of UFC 205 on November 12th, mixed martial arts (MMA) fans may be witnessing history when it’s all said and done from the Madison Square Garden arena. Then again, they may not.

UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor is attempting to be the first man to hold two belts in different weight classes at the same time when he takes on Eddie Alvarez for the 155-pound title in the main event of the biggest card in UFC history.

McGregor won the 145-pound title back in December of last year when he defeated Jose Aldo in a mere 13-seconds with a perfectly timed counter left hook that shut the Brazilian legend’s lights out. Since then McGregor has embarked on a two fight tenure in the welterweight division in his not so mini-rivalry with Nate Diaz, and will now climb back down to lightweight rather than defend the title he won nearly a year ago.

Alvarez will make his first career UFC title defense against the Irishman, coming off of a miraculous first round knockout win over former champ Rafael dos Anjos to secure his first ever piece of UFC gold.

While a rumored matchup between long-awaited title contender Khabib Nurmagomedov floated around, the Russian was instead put in a matchup with Michael Johnson on the same card and will have to wait just a bit longer before receiving his first shot at UFC gold.

Alvarez recently joined Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour to discuss his upcoming bout with ‘Notorious’, and stated that he doesn’t feel bad for ‘The Eagle’ for once again getting passed up for a title opportunity:

“Nah, I don’t feel bad for fighters. If something tragic happens about his family and things like that I feel terrible. As far as the fight business and what goes on I don’t feel bad for fighters. We play a game, and there are no rules and you gotta learn how to play it. You gotta learn how to play it to the best of your ability. But we’re all in the same game,” Alvarez said.

When asked if he believes Nurmagomedov got ‘played’ after being passed up for the title shot in favor of McGregor, Alvarez had this to say:

“Ya a little bit, yeah. I’d say so.”

Alvarez got his first taste of McGregor’s trash-talk filled lead-up to fight night when the two exchanged words during the UFC 205 press event, to which Alvarez rated his performance on the mic as a ‘five out of ten’:

“Maybe like a five out of ten. I would have like to have been prepared, I wasn’t prepared because we had just made the deal the night before. If I was going into that sort of realm where I know guys talk sh*t, I would have been prepared fully to basically win the whole thing.

“But the fact that I wasn’t sure if I was gonna fight, and the fact that we had just got the deal done, I wasn’t gonna stay up all night making notes, I thought it was more important to just be genuine and say how I felt. Whether it came out however it came out, just say how I felt when I felt it.”

While McGregor made a few jabs at Alvarez taking the fight on his current contract rather than negotiating a new one, ‘The Silent Assassin’ claimed that the deal was simply too sweet to pass up as everything fit into place:

“No, no. I’m happy with the money that I’m ready to make. I don’t think — I think you have to earn the right to be able to draw a line in the sand and say ‘this is what I want.’ And I think fighters need to be prepared to walk if that’s the case. I don’t think this is one I was prepared to walk away from.

I think it’s too sweet. It’s too good of a style matchup, the opponent, the money is good, everything about the fight is good. It wasn’t one I was willing to walk away from at this time. It wasn’t one I was willing to nickel and dime the UFC about — cause I’m negotiating the deal, the deal is good. I’m fine by it.”

McGregor and Alvarez would face off for the first time after the press conference, in a rather heated manner after Alvarez poked fun at the featherweight champ once UFC President Dana White handed him his ‘little boy belt’:

“Dana was putting the belt on him, and I told him ‘yeah, give him the little boy belt.’ So he took that little boy belt, and he got mad about that, that pissed him off a little bit that he had the smaller weight class belt. And he puffed his chest out, tightened his pants a little bit, and he got real tall.”

Alvarez was being boo’d by most in attendance for the press event, cheering rather for ‘The Notorious One’ who as always stole the show when given a microphone to spew his brash brilliance.

The lightweight champ, however, claims that those who cheer for the Irish star are mostly made up of fans from the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and aren’t really educated on the sport of MMA:

“Given the reaction to that crowed, yeah. It kinda was weird, I definitely didn’t expect that as far as the boo’s. It sort of reiterated to me what his fanbase is. His fanbase is him, there are people who — it’s all perception. It seems like he has a lot of WWE fans, like guys who don’t know nothing about fighting at all.

They just like him, so you can have them fans, they aren’t the fans I want anyway. I’ll get boo’d all day long because I don’t want a fan who doesn’t know shit about MMA, I rather have a fan who knows the sport, enjoys the sport and can see value.”

Since signing with the UFC in 2014 Alvarez has been in the Octagon with some of the best combatants the world has to offer such as Donald ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone, Gilbert Melendez, Anthony Pettis, and Rafael dos Anjos. Given his extensive resume Alvarez feels little to no threat when standing face-to-face with McGregor ahead of their war:

“Yes, 100%,” Alvarez said. “I think every other one of them opponents that you mentioned, they have a well rounded skill set. Even if the fight goes to another realm of MMA, where your going to standing up, ground, to jiu-jitsu, every one of them is tough. They’re well versed, they can hang with some of the toughest guys in the world in every aspect of the sport. I don’t think he can, from what I’ve seen.

“Not only that, the conditioning aspect, is just not a good level of conditioning. The last Nate Diaz fight was a very big eye opener for me. Usually when I square up with a man, my heart rate goes up, I feel something, I never felt so un-threatened by a human being when I was up on stage with him. That’s the god honest truth, I’ve never felt so un-threatened by another man.”

While McGregor is famously credited for his ability to predict the outcomes of his fights right down to a tee, Alvarez is reluctant to make a prediction as to how their bout will go down come November 12th as fights are simply too unpredictable to call:

“Man, we’ll have to see. Fight’s are unpredictable, we’re not sure what’s gonna happen. I’d be lying, just like he is, if i went and spit something out. He made his prediction after I got him angry. It’s a tall tale sign that his prediction was forced and wasn’t something he thought, he just made it up because he got angry. You guys will all see the image on November 12th, and it will be a beautiful image.”

McGregor and Alvarez will go head-to-head in the main event of UFC 205 for the lightweight championship live on pay-per-view (PPV), from the Madison Square Garden Arena in New York City on November 12, 2016.

You can check out Alvarez’s interview on The MMA Hour here: