Eddie Alvarez became the new sensation of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) when he defeated Rafael dos Anjos and captured the UFC Lightweight Championship.
Alvarez, a 13-year MMA veteran, is taking a businesslike approach to being the UFC’s new 155-pound king. He’s worked his entire career to get to this point, and he doesn’t just want to gift a random contender a crack at his title.
Alvarez also knows now is the time to reap the financial benefits of sitting atop the throne and he wants to cash-in on the winner of UFC 202’s rematch between the UFC’s golden child Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz.
Since Alvarez won the lightweight title last month, he has been pretty adamant about getting a big money fight; and the biggest money fight in MMA today is against the UFC Featherweight champion, Conor McGregor.
But recently, with Tony Ferguson being booked against Rafael dos Anjos, it's starting to look like the UFC is pushing for Alvarez's first title defense to be against top-ranked contender Khabib Nurmagomedov.
Perhaps in an effort to dissuade this notion and land himself the bigger payday, the lightweight champ did several interviews with various media outlets and in each one of them, he made a point to go after McGregor.
Alvarez has been a vocal critic of McGregor since he claimed his lightweight crown in July and has expanded on why he thinks any clash with the Irishman would be an easy fight for him.
The only wrestler Conor will actually challenge is a fake wrestler," Alvarez told TMZ. "I got my eye on Nate Diaz-Conor, I would love to fight the winner of that whole crew. You fight all the best guys in the world and at the end of the day, the media asks you about Conor McGregor. I'm sick of being asked about his name."
Alvarez was reported saying, "Diaz is a great style matchup for him. The reason he originally picked Diaz is he believed that was a great style matchup for him because Diaz only punches, he don't kick, he don't take down - he does everything Conor wants to do. Conor wants to box. He don't want to be involved in the sport of MMA.”
Alvarez was also critical of McGregor’s recent move to call out the entire world of pro-wrestling. Over the past week, McGregor has been blasted by pro-wrestlers and wrestling fans alike, for poking fun at the WWE roster.
Alvarez also chipped in when he said that the only wrestler that Conor would actually challenge was a fake wrestler.
It will be interesting to see what’s next for Alvarez. Obviously, he’s campaigning hard for a big fight with either Diaz or McGregor, but it seems like the UFC is positioning to hand Khabib Nurmagomedov a title shot instead.
