Thiago Alves: GSP fights very very safe, not to lose
Under the “Dolce Diet,” Thiago ‘Pitbull’ Alves turned in one of the best performances of his career at UFC 124…
Under the “Dolce Diet,” Thiago ‘Pitbull’ Alves turned in one of the best performances of his career at UFC 124 versus John Howard.
“I was talking to Mikey [Dolce] before and I was telling him about my experience cutting weight and all that,” Alves said. “He told me, ‘Thiago, you’ve been competing at the high level in the weight division at 60% of your athletic abilities. Can you imagine what you can do with 70, 80, 100%?’ It motivated me a lot. I think the last fight guys saw 70%. This next fight against Rick Story, you guys are gonna see 80-85 and I can’t wait to see 100% of me being healthy and ready to kill somebody.”
“It was just, I didn’t know how to pull out the weight. I didn’t know how to lose weight. I did the most crazy things possible to lose weight. I went normal until fight week or starve myself throughout the training camp. Going through my training camp, I was just getting beat up because I had no energy to recover my body or even fight back to my training partners. That was my biggest issue.
“When I fought GSP I passed out from Wednesday until Friday morning, then I fought on Saturday. When I fought Fitch, same thing.”
“Before I use to walk around between 200 to 210. The highest I got was 212, but now I’m walking around between 195 and 200.”
“Oh yes definitely,” Alves said when asked if St. Pierre fights not to lose. “He just wanna take the belt home. You can’t blame him, the guy did so much in the sport. He’s a great champion. There’s nothing you can say about the guy. He doesn’t wanna go out there and put his career, his belt, on the line the way he should, but he’s still the champion. He’s still making the money and bringing the belt home and at the end of the day, that’s all that matters.”
St. Pierre was heavily criticized for his most recent performance against Jake Shields at UFC 129. St. Pierre was seen as a ridiculous favorite, someone who could nullify Shields’ ground game and batter him in the stand up. Half of that was true. Shields was unable to get the fight to his mat, where he could execute his efficient Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, but St. Pierre hardly demolished him in the striking department. Tentative round after tentative round slipped by with St. Pierre never turning up the pressure or wading in for the kill. The fight was blasted as the only disappointment in a night filled with excitement and intrigue.
“I was very, very disappointed,” Alves said of GSP’s win over Jake Shields at UFC 129. “I thought Jake Shields looked really good and I thought GSP didn’t look at his best at all. You see his face after the fight and everything. I thought GSP would take way more risks with Jake Shields, especially on his stand-up. I knew Shields was gonna have a hard time trying to take him down and I knew he could of stayed on top without getting submitted. He just didn’t want to take any chances and played very, very safe.”