411 MMA Interviews: Eddie Alvarez

Posted by Jeffrey Harris on 03.25.2010

Top ranked lightweight fighter and champion of Bellator Fighting Championships Eddie Alvarez speaks with 411 for an exclusive interview discussing his upcoming fight with Josh Neer, Bellator's expansion, a hypothetical fight with BJ Penn, and much more!

The Bellator Lightweight Champion and professional fighter, Eddie Alvarez (19-2), has a record that boasts wins over such fighters as Joachim "Hellboy" Hansen, Tatsuya Kawajiri, and Katsunori Kikuno. Alvarez made it to the finals of the DREAM LW GP in 2008, but was unable to compete in the final title bout due to an injury. Undeterred, Alvarez came back strong the following year, sweeping the first ever Bellator lightweight tournament to become the first ever lightweight champion of the new MMA promotion. Alvarez won all of his Bellator tournament bouts by submission, and has finished 17 of his 21 career bouts by knockout or submission, not keen to let a fight go to the judges.

Alvarez is set to make his return to the cage on May 6 at Bellator 17. Alvarez will be facing former UFC fighter Josh Neer in a catch weight 160 pound, non-title fight. Recently, 411mania got a chance to speak with Alvarez who was rehabbing from a recent knee surgery before going back to training for his upcoming fight with "The Dentist":



Jeffrey Harris: Why is that you will be fighting Neer at a catchweight in a title bout? Did you want to defend the title or did you have an obligation to defend the title later on?

Eddie Alvarez: I don't make them decisions. That's the promotion's decision to make it title, non-title, whatever it is. I don't care what it's for to be honest with you. I'm just looking to fight another guy to keep busy and I just try to fight the people they put in front of me. As far as the catch weight, I didn't come up with that idea; it was Josh Neer's camp. And I'm just agreeing to 160 because I don't want him not to fight me at 150. I'd rather have an opponent at 160 then no opponent at 155.

Jeffrey Harris: Do you feel 160 is a comfortable weight for you?

Eddie Alvarez: Absolutely, I mean I spent half my career fighting at 170 and I didn't cut weight at all. So it's not really about a weight thing for me. I enjoy fighting period. I don't care what weight it is.

Jeffrey Harris: Josh Neer has a lot of experience and he fought some good guys for a while in the UFC. He's got some good standup, good jiu-jitsu, and he fights well off his back. One of his weaknesses seems to be takedown defense. Is that something you plan on taking advantage of in the fight?

Eddie Alvarez: To be honest with ya, I have seen a couple of his tapes. I haven't studied too much of him yet, so I'm sure I will get to that. And if that's one of his weaknesses, then I'm sure that's probably something he's going to want to strengthen before we get in there and fight. So sure it has to be something he'll be working but there are a number of things I would like to do. I'd like to mix it up and keep him thinking, so we'll see how the fight goes. I don't even know what I'm going to do, so who knows?

Jeffrey Harris: With what you know about Josh Neer, how do you feel match up with him?

Eddie Alvarez: I love the match-up. I believe it's a fight where I'm going to predict where the fight is whether I want to stand it up or I want it on the ground. And I believe in my heart by the time the fight comes, there's no doubt in my heart I'm going to do everything in my power to put Josh Neer away. Whether that's on the ground, standing up, or where ever it is. It's going to be exciting regardless. He's one of those veterans who stick around until the bitter end, and I'm the same sort of way so it's going to be a war of attrition and anybody that's a true fight fan will tune in for this match-up.

Jeffrey Harris: Being the Lightweight Champion of Bellator, how do you feel about this expansion of Bellator moving to FSN and NBC? How excited are you?

Eddie Alvarez: This is huge. This would be the first time when I'm fighting here in America on a major network. I haven't been exposed to the masses yet so I have to be at my best, my complete best, good performance, and go out there and show everybody whose watching here in America who Eddie Alvarez and that's what I'm looking to do. I haven't gotten to the chance to do that yet, so now that I'm given the opportunity I want to take full range of it.

Jeffrey Harris: Over in Japan you've fought and beaten some top fighters like Tatsuya Kawajiri and Joachim Hansen. You've fought Shinya Aoki. So it must be great now that you'll be fighting in the US and people will have the chance to see what you can do now on a more major stage.

Eddie Alvarez: Yeah, I mean people have seen bits and pieces of what I can do and they've seen it against foreign talent so it kind of discredited by some. Some people don't believe it's legit. So whatever it is, it is, but everyone's going to find the truth out this year when I fight on a major network here in America and they'll see what I'm about, they'll see how I fight and I hope people enjoy and like it.

Jeffrey Harris: You made it to the finals of DREAM Lightweight Grand Prix in 2008 but had to refrain from fighting in the final match because of injury. How hard was it seeing the guy you beat in the quarter finals ended up winning the tournament against Aoki? How did that make you feel?

Eddie Alvarez: It was tough that night you know watching Joachim party with his whole crew and a $100,000 check that was tough. But the only thing that bothers me was the $100,000, it wasn't anything else. I could've really used that money. I knew I did everything I possibly could in my power to win and to continue fighting. It wasn't in my power anymore, it was in the judges' decision to disqualify me and stop me, so there's nothing more that I could've done so I have to look at it that way. Looking back in retrospect, Joachim put his time in and I was still in that part of my career I was still in the stages of putting my time in. Maybe I didn't deserve it right then and there, and what happened the next year is I won the Bellator tournament. Everything comes you know. Everything comes and goes and it's just important to be consistent and put your time in and fight good guys.

Jeffrey Harris: Did it ever come up for you to have a rematch with Hansen for the title?

Eddie Alvarez: To be honest with you, when Joachim Hansen won the belt, the promotion promised me that I would get the first shot at Hansen for him to defend the title against me. And if you watch the end of the fight, Hansen actually said that. He said my first title defense will be against Eddie Alvarez. Well the promotion kind of – that didn't go through and I started fighting for Bellator and nothing really went through on that part. So it is what it is. I'm at the place where I should be right now and I'm blessed and I'm happy to be where I'm at.

Jeffrey Harris: Is it possible you might at some point want to have a rematch with Shinya Aoki for the DREAM lightweight title or maybe even in Strikeforce at some point?

Eddie Alvarez: Well I believe Bellator is going to try and do something with DREAM as well. I don't know. I mean a lot of big things are happening in a short amount of time. You never know. DREAM could form an alliance with Bellator and Bellator could form an alliance with Strikeforce. The way everything is going on, there's a lot of co-promoting going on and champions from certain promotions fighting other champions so you never know what's going to happen in the future. It's in the back of my head, a rematch with Aoki, so hopefully they can do something like that. But until then, my focus right now is on Josh Neer, and until I beat Josh Neer there's really nobody else to worry about.

Jeffrey Harris: Having competed in two lightweight tournaments in consecutive years, what was that experience like for you and fighting quite a bit so close together against some tough, good opponents?

Eddie Alvarez: I think with the DREAM tournament, that gave me experience to fight some of the top guys, but most of all, throughout the whole DREAM tournament I quickly learned I could hang with the top elite athletes. And what DREAM did was give me the confidence to go out and perform like I know how to because after the DREAM tournament I understood better that I am one of the top lightweights in the world and I can beat one of the top lightweights at any given time. So with that confidence I went on to win the Bellator tournament – that confidence gave me – it showed me the way to perform in the Bellator tournament and win.

Jeffrey Harris: Now that MMA is opening up more, especially in the US, what is it like to see the sport grown the way it has from where it was when you started?

Eddie Alvarez: I'm just happy people enjoy it and take to it. It seems like when I talk to people, there's no one set fan of MMA. Everybody is intrigued by fighting, young kids, older people, older ladies; everybody's intrigued by someone who fights for a living. So, I'm just people are taking to it because it allows me to do something that I love and do it for a living and be good at it. So I'm truly grateful and I'm truly blessed to be able to do what I love and make a job out of it.

Jeffrey Harris: What do you think of Bellator and your experience with the promotion so far?

Eddie Alvarez: Bellator so far has done a lot in a little bit of time. What they did last year with that tournament, putting on 12 fights in 3 months is something unprecedented. That just shows you that they have a good team behind them, a good group of people that – all they really needed was a big network behind them to push the fighters to the Americans fans and now they got it. There's no reason why this formula shouldn't be successful. They got the fighters. They got the network, and they got the right people behind the network and you can push them.

Jeffrey Harris: What are your thoughts on your fight last October with Katsunori Kikuno?

Eddie Alvarez: To be honest with you, I wasn't pleased with the first round. The way I wanted the fight to go was more like the second round. But it took me a while to get started and that's what a fight is. You never know. It's unpredictable. Sometimes you get caught up in situations and you got to be ready to deal with adversity and that was one of them situations. I got caught in a weird position. I had to stick it out and then come back the second round stronger. Things have to happen in order for you to grow as a fighter. It happened that night and I learned from it and hopefully I won't get caught in that situation again.

Jeffrey Harris: How did getting into MMA start for you?

Eddie Alvarez: Oh God. I wrestled in high school. I never went to college for wrestling. I kind of – there was an area of my life where 2 years I was getting into a whole lot of fights outside – with my friends, getting in fights in the streets. And then I started to come to the realization that I was going nowhere. I was going to end up either in jail or dead. So I decided to try MMA and it's funny, it sounds like a storybook ending but that's how it works. I fought a lot on the streets. I was winning so I decided to go to a gym and fight professionally and that's what I did. And I kept winning when I was fighting and here I am now. I'm ranked #3 in the world and the Bellator Lightweight Champion and I'm truly blessed. And I thank God every day that I can do this for a living and I don't take it for it granted. I'm probably training harder than everybody I know. It's been paying off.

Jeffrey Harris: What was your feeling when you won the Bellator lightweight tournament?

Eddie Alvarez: To me, it was the biggest purse I've ever won to date and just basically it just showed the sacrifice that I've made and my family, my wife, my kids, and my fans that stood behind me, it was a victory for all of us. I struggled for a while. I struggled with the DREAM tournament. Putting up a good half year of my life and not being able to continue in the tournament and not win the final prize. I went through a lot. I dealt with a lot of adversity and I got back up and went after the Bellator tournament and won. It put a lot of things in perspective for me. It was definitely a memorable moment.

Jeffrey Harris: In many rankings you're recognized in the top 5. Hypothetically, if you could fight anybody in the world you wanted to, who would that be?

Eddie Alvarez: Right now, I'm ranked #3 in the world so the only other guy that would make sense for me would be BJ Penn or Shinya Aoki, so either one of them guys. If I can a rematch with Aoki or fight BJ Penn that would be ideal and that would be the fight that would really show me where I'm at in the rankings.

Jeffrey Harris: Also hypothetically, what do you think of a match-up between you and BJ Penn?

Eddie Alvarez: I love it. I think that fight's a coin toss. I think it's a coin toss because I have strengths in certain areas where I'm stronger than he is, and he has certain strengths where he's stronger than I am, so the fight's a coin flip. If I'm focused that night, on any given night, I know I can beat any lightweight in the world if I'm focused and I had a good training camp. Ideally, that match-up for me, he likes to stand up, I like to stand up. I finish most of my guys and almost every exchange I've been in, in MMA, I've finished. I may have gotten knocked down, but when I stood up to exchange again, I win. When I throw punches, I win fights. If that's a sort of fight that it got drug into, I think I got the advantage.

Jeffrey Harris: Having a newborn son, and I imagine fighting in the US more now it's a little easier, but how difficult is it fighting out of the country and being away from your family and your kids?

Eddie Alvarez: It sucks. I'm not like other fighters. I don't do my training camps – I don't leave my family for 6, 7 weeks at a time and tell my wife that I'm going to go here and I'm going to train. I like to have my wife and my kids a part of what I'm doing. I like to keep them involved and know what I'm up to. I do my training camps at home and I do them with Team Fight Factory. I do them with Metabolic Adventation for strength and condition and I do a lot of boxing in the Philly area with a lot of pro Philadelphia boxers. I stay local and I stay around my family. That's what keeps me happy. That's what keeps me sane. And I have the best wife in the world a man could ask for. She holds down my house and my kids and she completely understands the sport and knows what I go through and I couldn't ask for someone better on my side.

Jeffrey Harris: Do you have any people or sponsors you would like to thank?

Eddie Alvarez: Yeah, I would like to thank Tapout, my signature t-shirt. I'd like to thank EA Sports. I'll be in a videogame this year from EA Sports. And go to my website AlvarezFight.com. And if you have Facebook, Facebook me, I'm on there as well.

Jeffrey Harris: Thank you so much for your time and really looking forward to your next fight and what you'll be doing in Bellator this year.

Eddie Alvarez: Thank you man, I appreciate it. And I just want to thank all my fans out there for allowing me to do what I love to do and make a living doing it.



Bellator 17 will be broadcast on Fox Sports Net on May 6. To get all the latest news on Bellator and Alvarez, remember to book mark 411mania.com or even make it your homepage. You can also follow us on Twitter:

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