Alvarez: UFC’s lightweights not most talented, just most well known
So he can move on to thinking about the UFC, maybe? I mean, when he’s training with that organization’s lightweight…
So he can move on to thinking about the UFC, maybe? I mean, when he’s training with that organization’s lightweight belt holder, Frankie Edgar, as he does once or twice a week, doesn’t he ever wish he were the one who gets to test his skills against the likes of Gray Maynard, B.J. Penn, Anthony Pettis, Kenny Florian, Sean Sherk and the others who make the UFC lightweight division so deep?
“You’re just mentioning names,” Alvarez responded. “And they’re only important names why? Because they fight for the UFC. Or else they’d be nobodies. The UFC does a great job of pushing them, and they’re popular. It doesn’t mean they’re talented. It just means they’re known.”
Wait a second. Alvarez is boiling down those fighters’ first-rate reputations to promotional muscle? He’s refusing to acknowledge that even UFC guys who’ve never worn a belt, like Maynard and Florian, would be dominant in Bellator, as pretty much everyone in MMA believes?
“I guarantee that if you put them in a tournament structure like Bellator, they’re not going to win it every time,” Alvarez said. “Gray Maynard? Kenny Florian? All these guys, they’re UFC fighters, that’s all. They’re pushed by the UFC, but when they leave the UFC, they’re forgotten. When’s the last time you heard Josh Neer’s name? You haven’t. When’s the last time you heard about Roger Hurerta? You haven’t. They’re no ones anymore. What were they two years ago? They were superstars.”
