Eddie Alvarez wants to earn your respect all over again. And until that happens, all the attention being placed on him during his new sting in ONE Championship is unwarranted.

In Eddie Alvarez’s ONE Championship debut in March, he suffered a first-round TKO loss to Timofey Nastyuhkhin in the first round of a tournament Eddie Alvarez was widely expected to win. Many eyes were on Eddie Alvarez heading into that debut, and he believes that attention was misplaced:

“I didn’t like the immediate attention I was getting,” Alvarez told ESPN this week. “I felt like it was undeserved. I didn’t get any wins under that banner. I like going into promotions kind of playing the underdog and earning my respect. So I feel like maybe that’s why I subconsciously lose my debuts in promotions, just so I can have to fight for something.

“I feel like respect is earned. It’s undeserved until you go somewhere and actually start beating guys and become the champion. I felt like there was already a lot of unearned respect there. “

One thing Eddie Alvarez does believe he deserves, though, is the money he is getting in a contract he alleges to be worth eight figures. For that, you will hear no argument from him, as he went on to explain why he deserves such a big contract despite the fact that he had not earned a win in the promotion when he signed the deal:

“You’re not paying me for a fight. You’re paying me for 16 years of doing what I’ve done,” Alvarez asserted. “So I never look at it like a here-and-now thing. I don’t get paid for my fights, for what I do for 15 minutes inside the cage. I get paid for being a lifelong martial artist, for doing this for 20 years of my life. That’s why I’m paid.”

Do you believe Eddie Alvarez deserves both the respect and money he is receiving in ONE Championship prior to his first victory?