With Conor McGregor failing to commit to a title defense and interim-champion Tony Ferguson earning his credentials against a lower ranked fighter, former UFC lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez has become disillusioned with the significance of the 155-pound strap
Alvarez is the only fighter to ever earn the title of champion in both the UFC and Bellator’s lightweight divisions.
Having beaten former World Series of Fighting’s 155-pound kingpin Justin Gaethje at UFC 218, Alvarez also holds the self-appointed crown of the ‘UFC’s most violent fighter’. That title was created due to the disillusionment “The Underground King” has suffered by watching the division come to a halt over the past year. Alvarez claims that the title he lost to Conor McGregor at UFC 205 in Nov. 2016 has simply ‘lost its value’.
Don’t expect Alvarez to shun the opportunity of reclaiming the title he took from Rafael dos Anjos in emphatic style in July 2016, however:
“I’m a realist,” Alvarez said (via MMAFighting). “My eye’s always on that gold belt. I feel like I f*cked up, I lost my belt, and I’m pissed about it. But I’m being realistic. I can’t, we can’t make Conor get back in there, he’s going to ask for certain [things], it’s gonna take awhile for that guy to defend that. Tony is waiting for Conor. Tony is going to sit, he’s gonna wait for that Conor fight and try to get that big payday.”
“Right now, sh*t just isn’t defined with the title,” Alvarez said. “And to be honest, there’s not a lot of value in it. What value is in it? There’s an interim guy who beat the No. 7 guy to become the champion. That’s not a champion. You can’t bring the No. 7 ranked guy in and then put him against the No 1 contender and he beats him and says now you’re the champion. That’s silly in any organization, any sport, anything. So the champion isn’t defending. So now the value of the belt loses its value. So for me I’m like, let’s make another belt, whoever is the Most Violent. We can make up whatever belts we want.”
