“There’s no real ceiling” - Eddie Alvarez says the sky’s the limit for fighters in ONE Championship

Eddie Alvarez believes that competing in ONE Championship presents endless options for martial artists to showcase their skills.

While the promotion primarily features mixed martial arts, Muay Thai and kickboxing are also highlighted through their all-striking arm, ONE Super Series. This year, ONE Championship is also putting a spotlight on submission grappling as a sport, with Brazilian jiu-jitsu stars like Andre Galvao, Danielle Kelly, Mikey Musumeci, and the Ruotolo brothers making their debuts in the circle.

‘The Underground King’ talked to Chael Sonnen on his YouTube channel to share what this means for the fighters in ONE Championship.

Eddie Alvarez said:

“I think all of us, all the athletes in general are up for anything. With Demetrious [Johnson], that’s the cool thing about the promotion is that you can explore your jiu-jitsu. Let’s say ‘Hey I wanna compete at a high level of jiu-jitsu and see what I got.’ Okay, you’re gonna do a jiu-jitsu match with Gordon [Ryan] or Buchecha and these guys.”

He added:

“Or you can say ‘I’m gonna try my kickboxing, I always wanna try kickboxing.’ Okay you can go up against someone like Nieky Holzken or someone who’s world class in that. There’s no real ceiling. You can explore whatever you want and I think it makes it fun for fans.”

Catch the full video below:

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Eddie Alvarez continues to attract top talents

While we probably won’t see Eddie Alvarez competing in a different sport soon, he is certainly a legend that fighters want to test their skills against.

Filipino MMA pioneer Eduard Folayang, who dabbled in Muay Thai at ONE X, recently expressed his desire to have a rematch against the 38-year-old American. Former ONE featherweight and lightweight world champion Martin Nguyen also called out Alvarez, if the former UFC champion ever decides to drop to featherweight.

ONE Championship’s latest signing, Croatian superstar Roberto Soldic, also has no problems taking on Alvarez in his promotional debut if he draws him.

In turn, the Philadelphia native is not shy about calling out younger fighters himself. In a recent interview, he said that Sage Northcutt would probably not be interested in fighting him. While Northcutt has yet to respond to Alvarez’s claim, it would be an interesting pairing.

With ONE on Prime Video 1: Moraes vs. Johnson II later this month kicking off ONE Championship’s deal with Amazon Prime Video Sports, there could be plenty of opportunities to showcase familiar stars to the North American audience.