

Becoming the champion he believed he would always be





Forget the 'money fight,' I'm a prizefighter

Should Alvarez get his wish, the future bout may classified as a "money fight." The phrase has been used a lot in the last few weeks as Alvarez and Tyron Woodley have been questioned for wanting to fight for bigger paychecks rather than the true number No. 1 contenders in their weight divisions.



Alvarez believes the criticism is ridiculous, and thinks people need to be reminded exactly why he fights in the first place. He also took the opportunity to have one last pop at Conor McGregor.



"I'm a prizefighter, and I fight for a prize," Alvarez said. "That means I fight for the biggest prize. If one fight has a bigger prize than another, then I want to take the fight with the biggest prize--I don't see how people don't understand that. I'm an old school fighter, and I've fought the best guys in the world throughout my career. I didn't ask for a title shot after I beat nobody. I fought guys ranked ahead of me. I fought the No. 5, No. 3, No. 1, and then asked for the champion.



"I have an old-school mentality about beating the best guys in the world. I was simply asked about Conor, and I said I would welcome that fight. I said that because I just feel like I could use an easy fight because I've been fighting the best guys in the division."

What a month it's been for Eddie Alvarez.Just four weeks ago at UFC Fight Night 90, Alvarez got UFC International Fight Week 2016 off to an incredible start when he upset the odds and defeated Rafael dos Anjos for the UFC lightweight title.That evening, Alvarez got the job done inside the first round after just three minutes and 49 seconds. It was his first victory inside the distance since his win over Patricky Freire at Bellator 76 in October of 2012. While he might have surprised some people that evening, Alvarez was adamant that he's always ready for any situation."I try to go into fights with zero expectations so I went in there and I trust my responses, trust my reactions and I trusted my coach to come up with the right game plan," Alvarez said. "Everything just kind of fell into place for me. I wanted to go punch-for-punch, kick-for-kick and takedown-for-takedown."I wanted to let him know he wasn't going to gain any momentum, and I was going to be in his face for 25 minutes. Luckily, I landed that big punch, and then got him out there."While Alvarez may have been the underdog heading into the Octagon against dos Anjos, winning the title wasn't something a shock to him--rather, it's something Alverez always believed would happen."For me, I've been fighting 13-plus years now, and it just felt real," Alvarez said. "The UFC lightweight title--I'd been thinking about this moment for such a long time and when it finally happened it just felt like it was supposed to happen. It was a promise I made a lot of people in life, that this time would come and that this time would happen. It was a big 'I told you so' to the fans."