Eddie Alvarez signed with One Championship earlier this year after a run in the UFC that saw him capture the UFC Lightweight Title.
Some fans believe that all the best professional MMA fighters compete in the UFC, but Alvarez shoots that notion down.
“That whole theory is crap that everybody who’s the best is a UFC guy,” Alvarez said to MMA Fighting. “It’s complete crap because I was the guy who didn’t fight in the UFC. I went there and won the belt. I beat arguably the best lightweight in that history. [Rafael dos Anjos] at the time was killing everyone. Like literally murdering the who’s who. So to go to the UFC, win the belt and be a guy from the outside that never fought there, I’m the guy you’re talking about. I wasn’t a UFC fighter per se but I went there and I won the world title. If I could do it, isn’t it true that anybody from the outside could possibly go there and win the title? It’s not arguable. It’s fact. The best fighters in the world, they’re all over and they’re virtually unknown.”
A lot of top level professional MMA fighters compete outside of the UFC, including Alvarez, Demetrious Johnson, Fedor Emelianenko, Ryan Bader, Gegard Mousasi, Rory MacDonald, Douglas Lima, Ben Henderson, Cyborg and so on.
Alvarez would go as far as to say that the level in striking is better in One Championship than it is in the UFC.
“As a fight fan myself, it’s clear that the level of striking is easily in the favor of ONE Championship. That can’t even be argued,” Alvarez said. “When you watch ONE Championship, and when you watch what goes on in the Muay Thai bouts and even the MMA bouts, the striking is vastly better in ONE Championship.”
One Championship is back in action this weekend with the One Championship Series: September ‘19 with Zou Jin Bo and Xie Wei headlining.
