Eddie Alvarez: I don't pride myself on being an athlete, I'm a fighter

Eddie Alvarez has never been one to take the easy path, in or out of the cage. The No. 4 ranked fighter in the USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie MMA lightweight rankings is rolling in the UFC with consecutive wins over top-ten opponents and he said he’s ready for a title shot.

Alvarez (27-4 MMA, 2-1 UFC) is a gritty fighter who, while heavy-handed, can use his wrestling background to control a fight. It’s that grappling safety net that gutted him to a UFC Fight Night 81 split decision win over former champion Anthony Pettis.

The ability to switch things up, he told MMAjunkie Radio, is key in the stacked lightweight division, especially with the new wave of fighters who focus on flashy striking approaches to MMA.

“You know, I think it’s a matter of keeping guys guessing,” Alvarez said. “In this division, you can’t be one-dimensional. You can’t only have one trick. MMA is becoming a lot of these new school karate guys who have no ground. I felt like there are a lot of guys who are being pushed that way. They’re these karate guys with karate backgrounds and they’ve never been to a jiu-jitsu class, they’ve never wrestled for any club at all. They do a lot of fancy flip kicks and stuff like that that aren’t really effective in a fundamental fight. I feel like it’s my job, and a couple of other old school veterans’ job, to beat these guys out and let people know that the flashy stuff doesn’t work in a real, fundamental fight.”

Alvarez has been in plenty of bloody battles in Bellator and the UFC. His pair of Bellator title fights with Michael Chandler were thrilling displays of brutality.

It’s his proven ability to fight through adversity that Alvarez takes great pride in. In fact, he said it’s the proof that he’s an actual fighter.

“There’s a lot of athletes – and I say this all the time – MMA is full of athletes,” Alvarez said. “But there’s very few fighters. I pride myself on being a fighter. I’m a good athlete, I can do things well. I’m an athletic guy. But I don’t pride myself on being an athlete, I’m a fighter. That’s one thing that I excel at. If the MMA math doesn’t add up to a lot of people, it’s a lot of intangibles that beat my opponents, not just a skill set.”

With wins over Pettis, currently ranked No. 5, and Gilbert Melendez, ranked No. 8, Alvarez believes he’s done enough to earn a title shot.

In fact, he said he’d “love, love, love” a crack at the belt after knocking off Pettis.

Always the fighter, Alvarez isn’t about to sit on the shelf and wait for the UFC to work it out, however. He is interested in the March 5 bout between lightweight champ Rafael dos Anjos and featherweight king Conor McGregor at UFC 196, but when the dust clears, he wants a title shot or to continue to knock off other top contenders.

“I’m not saying I’m sitting out,” Alvarez said. “I’ve got my eyes on fighting again if we’re not given a title shot. But I definitely want to see what goes down on March 5. I’m interested in what goes down on March 5. I have a good idea of what could happen and I think I want to be active. I don’t want to wait another seven or eight months if that’s what it takes to get a title shot, I want to get my hands on an opponent. But it can’t just be any opponent. I don’t want to fight a guy who is No. 20. I didn’t come in the UFC to fight a guy who is No. 20 or something like that. I want to fight the best guys. So, it has to be one of the guys who are the best, who are considered the best. And it has to be a big fight.”

For more on the UFC’s upcoming schedule, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.

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