Eddie Alvarez Only Focused On Capturing ONE Title

Eddie Alvarez only focused on one thing now that he’s under contract with ONE Championship. The former UFC lightweight champion is one of the big signings that the promotion made last year.

Now, he’s slated to make his promotional debut when he fights Timofey Nastyukhin in the first round of the ONE Lightweight Grand Prix at ONE: A New Era on Sunday, March 31.

For Alvarez, he has his sights set on capturing the ONE Championship lightweight title. In order to do that, he has plans to destroy everyone in his path to achieve that goal. And it all starts this weekend with Nastyukhin.

Once he signed with the promotion, the obvious trilogy fight with Shinya Aoki was a realistic possibility. However, that fight must wait. Alvarez already has a fight booked and Aoki is set to fight ONE lightweight champion Eduard Folayang at A New Era.

During the ONE Championship: A New Era press conference today in Toyko, Japan, the former UFC star was asked about if this idea of a trilogy fight with Aoki excites him.

“I’m super focused on the Grand Prix. I have no concerns about Shinya Aoki; he doesn’t even hold the belt,” Alvarez said (H/T to Body Lock MMA).

“I’m not being disrespectful, a lot of people ask me about Shinya, but he’s not even the belt holder. My concern is the guy in front of me, Timofey [Nastyukhin], I’d be disrespecting him if I thought about anyone else, but if I have my eyes on anything, it’s this shiny thing up here. I don’t really see a guy in front of it. I just want that world title. It’s the only one I don’t have. That’s all I’ve got my eyes on.”