Alvarez: McGregor not a championship fighter
UFC lightweight Eddie Alvarez recently chimed in on the Conor McGregor saga while on the MMA Hour and shared his belief that he is not ‘championship’ material.
UFC lightweight Eddie Alvarez recently chimed in on the Conor McGregor saga while on the MMA Hour and shared his belief that he is not ‘championship’ material.
Alvarez also spoke about McGregor’s fight with Nate Diaz and what he thought went wrong:
“That wasn’t the secret I was talking about,” Alvarez told Helwani. “The secret I was talking about is just taking the guy down, dumping him on his head, and then submitting him.”
The primary struggle for McGregor in that fight, Alvarez believes, was Diaz’s reach.
“Nate has a reach, and I think everybody was so up on Conor, and Nate just has this, he has a weirdly long, long reach, and it’s difficult to deal with,” Alvarez said. “Unless you have guys in front of you who are 6’, 6’2″ boxers throwing punches at you, it’s hard to prepare in that way. He’s sort of an awkward opponent to deal with, and you need the right guys in front of you to deal with that. Conor just couldn’t adjust.”
From there, Alvarez entered Diaz-in-round-two mode when talking about McGregor, calling out the current featherweight champ’s ability to truly thrive when the fight lasts more than a round or two.
“And to be honest with you, Conor’s a one-or-two-round fighter,” Alvarez said. “He’s not a championship fighter, you know what I mean? He’s a one-or-two-round guy. He’ll be a lifer, I think, in three-rounders. If he ever decides to do five-rounders or go past to five, I think most of his fights are going to look like that. He’s going to take a dump.”
