Eddie Alvarez Says Donald Cerrone Executed At UFC 178, He Didn’t

Former Bellator lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez made an unsuccessful octagon debut in the co-main event of September 27’s UFC 178, losing a unanimous decision to surging contender Donald Cerrone.

Alvarez came into the bout with lofty expectations, as a win most likely would have propelled him to a title shot against the winner of UFC 181’s championship bout between Anthony Pettis and Gilbert Melendez. Highly experienced fighting outside of the UFC for many years, Alvarez was focused on putting forth a perfect performance against Cerrone.

Instead he failed to accomplish that goal by getting repeatedly blasted by Cerrone’s vaunted Muay Thai, namely his punishing low kicks. Despite the disappointment, Alvarez spoke up on this week’s edition of The MMA Hour to state that he’ll adjust his fighting style and rebound with a victory:

“I put a lot into this. I put a lot of sacrifice into it. I moved my family from Philadelphia to Florida. I put a lot of people through a lot of sacrifices. For me to go out there and be anything but perfect, I get angry if I’m not. I made a couple of mistakes during the fight. I wasn’t able to compete the way I wanted to compete. I came up short.

It definitely wasn’t the night and it wasn’t the stage to do it on. I was angry. I’m still angry. I’ll get it figured out. There’s a couple of small adjustments that need to be made. I’ll make them adjustments and I’ll win my next one, for sure.”

It sounds like Alvarez is being incredibly hard on himself for the loss, yet he did take away some positives from his first UFC bout. In the end, he knows the fight ultimately came down to Cerrone simply executing his gameplan:

“I think I fought the first round well. Let me just say Cerrone did a good job of figuring some things out and sticking to his game plan. He did a better job than I did of executing that night. That’s what I’m most mad about.

Usually I’m the one who’s able to execute. I’m the one who’s able to go out there and enforce my plan and he did a better job than I did. My hat’s off to him. He did a good job, real good job.”

Alvarez doesn’t want to focus on the past, however, choosing to label the disheartening defeat as full of mistakes he won’t repeat:

“Whatever. I can go back and hindsight’s 20/20. I can say, ‘Ah, I should’ve done this, I should’ve done that’. The fact is that Donald executed. I didn’t. I rarely make mistakes twice. I’ll make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

With his sights set on the future, Alvarez picked up another huge bout when news broke earlier today that he will go to war with former UFC lightweight champion Benson Henderson in the co-main event of Jan. 18’s UFC Fight Night 59 from Boston.

He believes he matches up well with Henderson, and that “Smooth” will be the first step of a long win streak for him, this time against the top fighters in the world:

“I feel like I can do well against a guy like that. I still want the best guys in this division. My mind hasn’t changed one bit. Whoever the best guys are in this division, I want them in front of me. That’s really just how I feel.

I’m OK with losing, man. I lose like every three years or so. Every three years I take a loss and then I go on a tear for the next three years. I understand you can’t win all the time. Sometimes it’s important to see the other side so you take winning for granted.”

So Alvarez has broke his self-imposed silence and will look to get back on track against Henderson, who shares the dubious distinction of being a former titleholder coming off of a disappointing defeat.

Will he prove he can beat the best in his next bout, or will be the latest highly touted signee who fails to live up to his hype in the octagon?

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