After coming face to face with Conor McGregor at last week’s UFC 205 press conference, lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez admits he took little away from the staredown, feeling underwhelmed by the challenger.
Eddie Alvarez is set to defend his UFC lightweight championship against featherweight champion Conor McGregor at UFC 205 on November 12th which will mark the promotions debut in Madison Square Garden, New York City. While the fight may be two months away, the war of words has already started.
A veteran of the sport with over 30 professional fights, Alvarez has come face to face with the who’s who of the 155lbs division but when he squared off with McGregor at least week’s kick off press conference he claims his emotions were cool, calm and collected. Speaking on this week’s The MMA Hour, Alvarez described the scene and his reaction.
“Usually when square off with a man, my heart rate goes up, I feel something,” Alvarez said. “I never felt so unthreatened by a human being as when I was up on a stage with him. That’s the God’s honest truth. I’ve never felt so unthreatened.”
Comparing McGregor to the rest of the lightweight division, Alvarez feels the brash Irishman is one dimensional and when the going gets tough he hits a wall.
“They have a well-rounded skill set and even if the fight goes to another realm of MMA, from standing up, to ground, to jiu-jitsu, everyone is tough in each one,” Alvarez said. “They’re well versed, to the point where they can hang with some of the toughest guys in the world in any aspect of the sport. And I don’t think [McGregor] can, from what I’ve seen.”
McGregor has rarely gone the distance in his 23 fight career only seeing the judges scorecards in his fight with Max Holloway in August of 2013 and in the Nate Diaz fight at UFC 202 in August of this year. Alvarez believes the Diaz sequel showed a chink in his armour.
“The conditioning aspect is just not a good level of conditioning,” Alvarez said. “The last Nate Diaz fight was a very big eye opener for me.”
