Former UFC welterweight title challenger Thiago Alves is disappointed with his latest UFC performance, when he was knocked out by Curtis Millender in Austin, Texas. Despite the violent KO loss, however, Alves wants to get back in the Octagon as soon as possible and already has an opponent in mind, as he told Combate.

“I would like to fight again in June or July, tops. Fight two more times this year,” Alves said. “I’d like to fight Yancy Medeiros. We fought on the same card, so there’s no reason for that fight not to happen. I’m waiting. We’ll see what Sean Shelby says. I want to stay active, that’s my focus.”

As for the fight against Millender, Alves says he was surprised by the knee that knocked him out, which he claims to be something Millender didn’t do in his last fights.

“I didn’t really know this kid I was fighting,” Alves said. “I tried to do my best to study his style, but that knee he threw was something up his sleeve that I didn’t see him use in his last fights. It surprised me, but that’s the sport. All this inactivity got to me. I need to make some adjustments, the most important part will be reintroducing wrestling into my arsenal, which will be important when I face these really tall guys. They have very long limbs, so I’ll need some takedowns to mix things up.”

Before the Millender loss, Thiago Alves had defeated fellow veteran, Patrick Cote, via unanimous decision, in April 2017.