Eddie Alvarez Backs Justin Gaethje To KO Michael Chandler At UFC 268
Eddie Alvarez will be watching when two of his former opponents throw down at UFC 268 in Madison Square Garden on Saturday evening.
Justin Gaethje and Michael Chandler will face off, in what appears to be a lightweight title eliminator, in New York this weekend. Ahead of the highly anticipated bout, Alvarez took to Twitter to give his prediction.
“True pick em. Gun to my head I’m leaning Justin because of the leg kicks and the fact Mike doesn’t have a great deal of D, Mike’s easiest path is the ground, He could dominate JG there. But it will stay standing and I’d say the second most violent man gets it done JG KO.”
Eddie Alvarez’s History With Justin Gaethje & Michael Chandler
‘The Underground King’ was the first man to beat Gaethje in professional MMA. ‘The Highlight’ entered his fight with Alvarez with a perfect 18-0 record and was confident of keeping his streak going. On fight night, both men went back-and-forth in one of the best bouts of 2017 before Alvarez ended things with a picture-perfect knee in the third round.
In 2011, Alvarez lost in a ‘Fight of the Year’ contender against Michael Chandler who was able to get the submission win. Two years later Alvarez avenged that defeat via a split decision.
Since then, Alvarez has gone on to win and lose the UFC lightweight title. The 37-year-old is currently competing under the ONE Championship banner and has had a mixed bag of results since joining the Asian MMA promotion.
Alvarez suffered a shock first-round KO loss in his ONE debut at the hands of Timofey Nastyukhin. He then got back in the win column by submitting Eduard Folayang. Alvarez was then disqualified for hitting Iuri Lapicus with illegal strikes to the back of the head, however, that fight result has since been overturned to a no-content. Last time out, the former UFC and Bellator champion suffered a decision defeat against Ok Rae Yoon who has since gone on to become the ONE lightweight champ.
Do you agree with Eddie Alvarez? Will Justin Gaethje knock out Michael Chandler at UFC 268?
