Issue 038
June 2008
Eddie’s drive to compete is complemented by his base in family, more so than most fighters. “Family is everything to me. Without your family you don’t have the support.”
The state of Pennsylvania – of which Philadelphia is the major port city – is blue collar working class country, with the highest per capita of union workers in the USA. Like many US cities, in ‘Philly’ the flight of the middle class tax base to the suburbs and the rich to other states left a vacuum that is being filled with crime and poverty (although not quite as bad as TV shows like The Wire or Homicide make it out to be). There are still plenty of good people in the city, and it is their dream to have a better life than their parents – although that dream usually ends with the alarm clock rousing them for another day at their dead-end job.
Swimming against this tide is Eddie Alvarez, one of the most promising up-and-coming lightweights in the US. Born into a humble but rock-solid family, Eddie wrestled in school and enjoyed watching boxing on television with his father. “I grew up in the Kensington section of Philadelphia,” explains Eddie. “When I was younger it was actually good but as I got older the neighbourhood started to change like a lot of inner-city neighbourhoods do. I found myself in a crime-infested area. I had really good parents so didn’t get involved in any of the bullshit that went on with the drugs and crime. They kept me in Catholic school and kept my head about me so I didn’t fall victim.”
One of the things that kept Eddie on the straight and narrow was wrestling. “I wrestled in high school but when I got out I wasn’t competing anymore. I was supposed to wrestle in college but didn’t. I had a two-year span of my life where I wasn’t competing and I was just working and partying with my friends. That was the span in my life where I got in a lot of fights. I had no direction and that is why I got in trouble. I didn’t have any clear goals and drifted, did what my friends were doing. Fights just happened.”
Eddie could have ended up either working manual labour for the rest of his life or getting in more serious trouble. Instead Eddie rekindled the competitive spark with a visit to an MMA gym. “As soon as I found Fight Factory, they got me back on track and gave me clear goals. I tried to go different paths when I was younger, tried to see what I was best at or strongest at or where I’d be most successful, and fighting was my strong point or where I’d be most successful. I’ve been doing it my whole life, just not consciously doing it knowing I’d have a career doing it. It happens to be something I love, too. I don’t concern myself with losing or winning, just getting better at my trade. I just want to see how well I can perform. The only way to see how good a fighter you are is to fight better fighters and conquer them.”
Just eight months after starting at Fight Factory Eddie made his professional debut at welterweight in Atlantic City, New Jersey, what would become Eddie’s home away from home. New Jersey’s regional circuit has always been dominated by ground fighters but Eddie stood out immediately for what would be oversimplified as a sprawl-and-brawl style. In his first seven fights Eddie not only went undefeated, he did it with a series of knockouts and TKOs, with only two of those fights going to the second round. When Eddie knocked out his first UFC vet Derrick Noble in just over a minute to win the Euphoria MFC title, Eddie wasn’t just a regional standout anymore.
After going to Japan for another knockout win Eddie stayed with Euphoria MFC when they were bought by Bodog, and became one of their main stars. Eddie defended his title against another UFC vet, Aaron Riley, took part on the Costa Rica taping, lost his title to UFC vet Nick Thompson on the same Bodog card that saw Fedor fight Matt Lindland in Russia, and like Matt Lindland ending up leaving Bodog due to a lack of fights. “I kept being told to train, told 100% I would fight by the end of the year whether it was Nick or somebody else. I told them with my financial situation I needed to fight by the end of the year and was being told to keep training. When it comes down to it I was never given a fight and I wasn’t able to make money. When I asked for compensation for all my training I was told I’d get an advance and I’d have to pay it back with my next fight. That was commendable but the advance I was going to be getting was nothing compared to what I needed to stay afloat. I felt for a little bit I was being treated a little unfair. It was my decision. I still think they are great and don’t think I would never fight for them again. I think in the future they will build themselves strong and maybe I’ll go back and fight for them if they will have me. I didn’t burn any bridges, it was just business.”
Two big changes followed. First Eddie dropped to lightweight, a class more suited to his size. Equally as important Eddie joined Monte Cox, manager of multiple UFC champions and president of M-1 and upstart promotion Adrenaline MMA. Monte signed Eddie to a three-fight deal with Pro Elite, the company that puts on EliteXC and ShoXC events. Eddie won his ShoXC fight in January, but instead of waiting for his next EliteXC fight Eddie entered the DREAM lightweight Grand Prix (the offspring of K-1 HERO’s and Pride) which featured some of the top-ranked lightweights in the world. Eddie clarifies, “I’m with M-1 first and foremost. Until I win the belt for EliteXC they are secondary and right now M-1 is lending me to DREAM. These guys are my first priority and Elite will be my second. I’m not going to stop training for Elite.”
For now Eddie is only talking about the DREAM Grand Prix which also features Tatsuya Kawajiri, Joachim Hansen, Caol Uno, Mitsuhiro Ishida, and the winner of Gesias “JZ” Cavalcante vs. Shinya Aoki. “The money is great, I’m not going to lie,” says Eddie, “This opportunity is a chance to change my career and my whole life. If you look at the lightweights that are ranked there are five of them that are on this card, in one tournament, all fighting on one night. What more can you ask for as a fight fan, to draw the guys from all these different promotions? The UFC can’t do that, they can only draw guys from their brand and make them fight each other. They can’t grab the best guy in the world because sometimes the best guy in the world is not the guy in the UFC. It is great this organisation is able to do that, to take guys from different organisations and see who is truly the best.”
Having defeated Andre Dida in March, Eddie now advances to the second round of the DREAM tournament (on May 11th) where he faces the Norwegian Joachim Hansen. “My biggest hump was to believe I belonged with this group of fighters, and I truly believe it.
I feel I’m the best lightweight there. The first round was the first step for me because it was on a three-week notice and I had to get down to 155lb for the first time. There were a lot of ‘first times’ in my first match.”
Regarding Hansen’s performance the same night Eddie says, “Hansen stood with Baku, showed adversity, showed his ground game, showed his stand-up, and showed every aspect of MMA that people want to see as fans. He is well-rounded, experienced, and has beat JZ, the best guy in the world. A win over him is going to be a great opportunity for my career to take off.”
Eddie’s drive to compete is complemented by his base in family, more so than most fighters. When asked how much his family provides motivation for him to fight and how much is testing himself, Eddie responds, “I would say 50-50. Family is everything to me. Without your family you don’t have the support. Growing up, I’ve always been supported by my family in everything I did.”
Now 24 years old Eddie and his fiancé Jamie have two sons to support, the second born just two weeks prior to his ShoXC debut. “My father always taught me ‘no man is an island’ and ‘behind every great man is a great woman’. That is what I have, a great woman at home who allows me to focus on my career. She lets me know ‘don’t worry about this, I got this. You do what you have to do’. That is why I’m marrying her (13 September) and that is why she is my girl. This is how the bills are paid and she understands that. Now I have to provide and set a good example for my kids. I have to support them and the way to do that is to win fights. It is a key factor in my motivation. As long as I can push myself to perform the way I know I can, it all falls in line. With everything going on and all the money I’m being paid it absolutely goes out the window if your family is not there to support you. To me, without my family I’m nothing.”
2008 looks like the year for Eddie to make his mark in the DREAM tournament or, if that fails, EliteXC, a goal in itself for many fighters. Even with the achievements and success the two quotes that sum Eddie up: are “I feel I’m the best lightweight there” and “Without my family I’m nothing”.
