Issue 091

August 2012

He’s leaped from the mean streets of Philadelphia to the top of the Bellator rich-list, yet is Eddie Alvarez about to jump ship to the UFC?

You’re coming off a huge win against Shinya Aoki, a man who submitted you earlier in your career. What’s life been like since that victory?

“Life is excellent. It’s good to be back in Philadelphia. It’s good to be back with my family as I was away for two months, off and on. I just want to let my kids know that their dad still cares about them (laughs).” 

You were brought up in Kensington, Philadelphia, which is well known for being the place where Rocky was filmed. What was it like growing up there?

“Kensington is widely known for being a fighting town. There’s a boxing gym on pretty much every corner. I grew up in an area that bred fighters, and if you couldn’t fight then you were considered an outcast by most people. When others were playing stickball or hockey, we would knock on a friend’s door and see if he wanted to go a few rounds (laughs). That was normal for us, so the fact that I’m doing what I’m doing now for a living isn’t too surprising.”

So with boxing gyms all around and the fact you were an accomplished high-school wrestler, when did you start getting into combat sports?

“A lot of the kids I knew used to box and it’s just what we did, you know? From a young age my father was always teaching me how to throw a proper punch. My grandfather was a boxer, and although my father wasn’t a boxer, he taught me everything I know about boxing. I grew up fighting in general and I enjoyed it. I was a really physical kid.

“I started wrestling in high school and there was a chance that I was going to pick a Division 1 college and go wrestle there because I did really well in high school.”

How did mixed martial arts come into your life?

“In high school, there was a kid who wrestled with us and they would go to my friend’s basement, get together and do jiu-jitsu. One guy was a boxer and another guy did Muay Thai. I went to visit one time and I started to wrestle with them. That’s when I got an idea of what they were doing. I still wrestled and kept in touch with the guys in the basement, but it wasn’t until I realized I wasn’t going to college and that I wasn’t going to compete in wrestling anymore, I figured that I should try this MMA thing.”

You debuted 10 years ago and you’ve had so many high-profile fights in your career, how much of that first fight do you actually remember?

“I was nervous, man. I don’t think I did a thing I actually learned in the gym. Everything became instinct again and I pretty much blanked out. I fought a guy from Matt Serra’s gym, we got in a little exchange, I took him down, got the mount and knocked him out. From then on, I went on a roll. I started knocking everyone out. That first one was scary, though. He stayed down longer than I’d expected and longer than I’d ever seen before. That doesn’t really scare me now, though, as I understand the danger I put myself in and my opponent understands that too, so we’ve got to do what we’ve got to do. But I want to compete and win, I don’t want to hurt people.” 

You’ve had a huge amount of success with Bellator. Have you been surprised with how successful they’ve become in such a short period of time?

“Getting on Spike was surprising. I was very happy for Bjorn [Rebney], the team and myself, because Bellator is at the highest point of its history right now and it made me really proud. Bjorn is no-nonsense type of guy and he did everything he said he was going to do. He’s very calculated in everything he does. To sign with a company and watch it grow from nothing, to what it is today, it’s a really cool experience and I’m just happy to be a part of it.”

You had an epic fight with Michael Chandler in November which could be a candidate for ‘Fight of the Year’ at this year’s Fighters Only World MMA Awards. Did you expect him to be that good?

“I expected him to come hard. I expected him to be conditioned and be in the best shape of his life and be ready. I made a few mistakes during the fight and he was able to capitalize on them. My hat’s off to him. But in the same scenario, I don’t think that would ever happen again.”

Do you believe it’s slightly unfair you’d have to go into the tournament to face him again, even though you’ve done so much with the company already?

“I think it’s severely unfair that I can’t get a title shot after what I’ve achieved in Bellator. It’s sort of like working your way up the corporate ladder and being 15 minutes late and then they put you in the mailroom. It was kind of s**tty, and I didn’t agree with it and I let everyone there know that I didn’t agree with it. However, that’s their structure and that’s the way that they want to keep it. I respect them for wanting to keep the tournament format, but I think there has to be exceptions. There has to be some protocol that allows the fans to get what they want. At the end of the day, it’s not about the promotion, it’s about the fans and what they want to see.”

You’ve been linked with the UFC for a while now. With just one more fight left on your Bellator contract, how realistic is the possibility of you joining the UFC?

“It’s the only thing that makes sense for me at this point in my career. You’d think that if you’re ranked in the lower regions of the top 10, you’d want to fight someone who was number three or number four. Unfortunately, there isn’t anyone in Bellator who can get me to that ranking. It makes sense for me to move to the UFC. I don’t want to be involved in fights that people don’t want to see. I want to be involved in fights that people care about.”