#11: Eddie Alvarez
Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
There is no unified criteria among MMA fans or analysts in determining the all-time greats of the sport. I personally believe the closest we can get to objectivity is to attempt to rate quality wins, rather than symbolic accomplishments or contribution to the sport. For a more in-depth explanation of that system, you can check out my section of our collective rankings page, or this document containing my own list, which includes the individual ratings of each quality win for dozens of candidates.
Today, we’ll be looking at the resume of “The Underground King”, Eddie Alvarez. In terms of skill, Alvarez made his money as a wild, athletic wrestle-boxer who was never afraid to earn miles on his chin to get to his best positions. While his defense on entries was often spotty, Alvarez’s ability as a counter fighter, wrestler, and combination puncher should not be questioned.
As the man on the receiving end of one of Conor McGregor’s greatest performances, Alvarez is often overlooked by the mainstream audience. A more educated tier of fans can appreciate the wins he put together in the UFC and the quality of opposition he faced. A smaller but even more in-tune audience is familiar with his dominant and exhilarating run as Bellator’s lightweight champion. Not many know about the significance of the fights that put Alvarez on the map, his run through the DREAM 2008 Lightweight Grand Prix.
His list of UFC scalps are impressive, especially when you consider they came 13 years into a career defined by drawn-out concussive battles. But even before entering the UFC, Alvarez had a number of quality victories worth appreciating.
The Resume of Eddie Alvarez
The essential questions to answer are, “how good was (Fighter X) at the time Eddie Alvarez defeated them? How tough were they to beat in that specific fight?” If we’re lacking data, “what form were they in at that stage of their career?” Method of victory, dominance, or other measures, would only add layers of subjectivity and muddy the process.
At the most basic level we’re evaluating how hard that fighter is to beat, in a pound-for-pound sense. The curve is based on the best MMA fighter(s) we’ve ever seen to this point, so the goalposts to reach “100” status will move as the sport continues to age and evolve.
Someone like Andre Dida, who Alvarez defeated in the first round of the DREAM LWGP in 2008, would not make the cut. Dida was a ferocious striker and a strangely accurate puncher, despite his horrendous mechanics, he even knocked down Buakaw in their K-1 MAX bout. However, Dida having next to zero wrestling or grappling ability drops him out of consideration as a fighter worth rating.
It wasn’t until the next round that Alvarez was faced with the first high-quality opponent of his career.
Quality Win #1: 2008 Joachim Hansen (79)
By the time he met Eddie Alvarez, Joachim “Hellboy” Hansen was already a nine-year veteran of mixed martial arts. At a time when the UFC had not yet embraced the lightweight division, most of the world’s best at 155 competed in Japan. At this point, Hansen had wins over Rumina Sato, Takonori Gomi, Gesias Cavalcante, Caol Uno, Masakazu Imanari, and Yves Edwards. The Edwards win was especially significant, as it broke Edwards’ seven-fight winning streak as the “unofficial” best lightweight in the world.
In the three years that separated the Edwards and Alvarez fights, Hansen had only suffered decisive losses to former pound-for-pound #1 Hayato Sakurai and a rising Shinya Aoki. Hansen put a streak together and found himself in the DREAM LWGP quarterfinals against a fighter who had apparently been dubbed “The American Knuckle Star” by the Japanese audience.
A superficial glance at Hansen’s record will lead the viewer to the accurate conclusion that he was inconsistent. He traded wins and losses with the best in the world, sometimes he looked like an incredible championship quality competitor, sometimes he dropped fights to unheralded fighters.
But Hansen’s inconsistency goes beyond his career results, “Hellboy” was inconsistent with his performance in a single given fight. One minute you find yourself wondering how he beats anyone, the next you’re in awe at the depth of his skill. Hansen gave both of those looks against Alvarez, looking slow and stagnant before getting dropped easily with a few Alvarez leads, giving up takedowns without much of a fight.
But perhaps after being “woken up”, a different fighter emerged.
Rating
CLIP: Joachim Hansen surges back to life and gives Eddie Alvarez all he can handle (2008)
Even when rocked and appearing relatively lifeless, Hansen retained his guard, stifling any attacks from Alvarez. He toyed with a few different ideas, even securing mission control, flashing some knowledge of the still emerging rubber guard.
Off his back he gave Alvarez fits, trapping his arms and threatening submissions when Alvarez was near, pushing on the hips and attacking with upkicks when Alvarez postured up.
On the feet, while Hansen’s high guard left him vulnerable to digging body shots, he demonstrated his ability to deflect the hooking entries of Alvarez and fire back with accuracy on the American’s retreat. even moving his head evasively and working into collar ties, where he was much more dangerous. Once Hansen recognized Alvarez as a counter threat, he forced him to lead and capitalized with aggression. To stifle the bouncing lateral movement of the young upstart, he punted the legs with regularity.
Seemingly out of nowhere, Hansen’s wrestling ability appeared as well. He sprawled reactively and dug underhooks, maintaining strong footing to work his back off the ropes.
In the clinch Hansen showed off his upper body prowess, regaining his balance after a failed hip toss, manipulating Alvarez in the ties to run his feet then sweeping him onto his back, threatening with a deep guillotine as Alvarez scrambled back to a single.
Late in the fight, Hansen countered Alvarez’s heavy forward top pressure with a gorgeous helicopter armbar, elevating Alvarez with his feet on his hips then swiveling for the arm on Alvarez’s way back down. They scrambled, and Hansen hipped over into mount. As Alvarez looked to turn and push away, Hansen, hanging off of Alvarez’s back, posted with one hand to keep himself in the air and transitioned to an inverted armbar, modifying with a triangle once Alvarez entered his guard.
At another point Alvarez got to rear standing on Hansen, who channeled his inner Kazushi Sakuraba and attacked a kimura, using the attempt to escape back to his feet safely. Hansen used the kimura trap again off Alvarez’s double leg against the ropes to sweep from half guard into an armbar, transitioning from the belly-down finish to put Alvarez flat on his back, inches from tapping.
Not only was Hansen’s display of well-rounded and shockingly deep skills incredible for 2008, these are technical details that would likely hold up today against decent fighters. What brings Hansen’s rating back down to earth is his inconsistency, and lack of athletic threats. Hansen was clearly strong, and reportedly smelly, but he was also slow and a bit fragile at times.
Quality Win #2: 2008 Tatsuya Kawajiri (75)
In the semifinals awaited a less nuanced, but more physically threatening fighter in Tatsuya Kawajiri. In 2008, Kawajiri was best known for his wrestling and crushing top game, he was considered to have an “American” style. Eight years into his pro career, Kawajiri had noteworthy wins over Yves Edwards, Vitor Ribeiro and Joachim Hansen. He was perhaps most popular for his ridiculous war with peak-form Takanori Gomi at PRIDE Bushido 9, one of the greatest cards of all time.
Rating
It is both a credit to and indictment of Kawajiri’s game that most of his fight with Eddie Alvarez took place on the feet. Against a superior wrestler from neutral, Kawajiri was forced to employ his secondary skill set, a serviceable kickboxing attack.
CLIP: Tatsuya Kawajiri goes to war with Eddie Alvarez (2008)
He showed some basic, but good looks as a striker. He punted the leg on both sides, he dipped under Alvarez’s hooking leads and threw massive swinging counters, sometimes “closing the door” with a lead hook after. Compared to Hansen his counter punching game was more wild, a bit less technical, but certainly more of a physical threat. There is no better evidence of this than when a retreating Kawajiri planted his feet before hitting the ropes, then following his hook with an uppercut that dropped a level-changing Alvarez to his knees. Alvarez was clearly out for a second there.
Once he was able to work on top thanks to the knockdown, Kawajiri showed off his base skill, his top game. Even with his posture broken down, Kawajiri had the balance, awareness and hip mobility to step over Alvarez’s guard and pass, stuffing the leg to secure half guard. From there Kawajiri sought to lock down head and arm control, tripod up, post on the guard of Alvarez with one leg and kick out his trapped leg. As soon as Kawajiri’s legs were free to pass to side control, he capitalized on his height and immediately stepped over into mount instead.
Ultimately Kawajiri did pretty well to counter on the feet, but he was overwhelmed by the aggressive Alvarez, largely in part to body punching. Kawajiri’s strengths weren’t as clearly defined as Hansen’s, his skills just didn’t go quite as deep. He still receives a decent rating for being a bit more put together as an athlete and putting Alvarez in serious trouble.
Quality Win #3: 2009 Katsunori Kikuno (72)
As Kawajiri had enough success in the UFC to earn respect from fans, and Hansen for his viral knockouts, PRIDE tenure and classic DREAM bouts, Katsunori Kikuno is by far the most underrated of the three.
A unique karate stylist, Kikuno was 12-1 when he met Alvarez, he rode an 11-fight undefeated streak into their bout. In his fight prior, Kikuno rocked, took down and pounded out a previously mentioned Andre Dida.
Kikuno spent the best years of his career outside the UFC, North American fans were not seeing anywhere near peak-Kikuno when he dropped bouts to the likes of Kevin Souza and Diego Brandao. In his prime, Kikuno only lost to Alvarez, a talented grappler at his peak in Cavalcante, Mizuto Hirota, and a durable, monstrous top player in Satoru Kitaoka. He never notched any outstanding wins, but it’s a shame that mainstream audiences missed out on a fairly interesting fighter at his best.
It is also a crime that Kikuno’s Ganryujima bouts are not listed on his record on Wikipedia. He is 7-0 in the moat-fighting league, with two wins over Michihiro Omigawa and a vengeful knockout against Kevin Souza.
Rating
Kikuno’s style is far from traditional in terms of MMA or kickboxing, he’s been able to hold on to his kyokushin stance more than most practitioners who transition. Softly stepping forward with his hands outward, Kikuno’s approach seemed to concern Alvarez greatly, who shot on him almost immediately.
Right off the bat Kikuno showed off his powerful hips by sprawling with over-unders, sunk down to match Alvarez’s level change against the cage then gained a second underhook. Kikuno is already interesting as a striker, his offensive and defensive abilities as a wrestler are what really add depth to his game.
CLIP: Katsunori Kikuno brings it to Eddie Alvarez before gassing out (2009)
I sincerely apologize for the picture quality of this video.
Kikuno capitalized and attacked with his double underhooks while Alvarez had his head trapped underneath, locking his hands high on what was essentially a standing reverse full nelson.
Watch Kazushi Sakuraba demonstrate the efficacy of this position.
Kikuno held the position for ages, Alvarez was completely stuck. Ten years later, Alvarez was asked “what it was like”.
Once they were back on their feet, Kikuno approached with measured pressure, trapping Alvarez against the cage on numerous occasions. With Alvarez on the backfoot, Kikuno drew out the American’s leads, slipped and countered with precision.
From the outside Kikuno stabbed to the body with a snapping front kick and his patented crescent or triangle kick, which begins its motion as a round kick but finishes straight.
Kikuno was walking Alvarez down, ripping at his body, countering his leads, and denying his takedown attempts.
Nonetheless, Alvarez dug down and continued to pressure forward, pushing his attack and looking to wrestle whenever possible.
Eventually, Kikuno wore down, selling out on a guillotine attempt off Alvarez’s shot which left him vulnerable to the arm triangle.
Kikuno’s game was incredibly well put together at the time, and he was clearly a physical threat, given the speed of his strikes and the way he was able to manipulate Alvarez when they tied up. Kikuno’s conditioning and lack of answers on the ground are what bring him down to a modest rating.
Quality Win #4: 2011 Pat Curran (80)
Pat Curran’s turn from decent Midwestern pro to championship-caliber killer happened fairly quickly. He came into the Bellator Season Two lightweight tournament on an unimpressive one-fight win streak, likely fodder for the marketable and popular Roger Huerta, who was coming off a standout 6-2 UFC run. It was either Huerta or Toby Imada, the fighter Alvarez defeated in Season One’s tournament final to win the inaugural lightweight title. Imada locked up an insane inverted triangle choke on current superstar Jorge Masvidal to make the finals that year.
To everyone’s surprise, Curran knocked out a talented Mike Ricci then upset both Huerta and Imada to earn a title shot against Alvarez.
Rating
Curran’s massive improvements can be documented from his tournament final against Toby Imada to his fight with Alvarez.
A decent high school wrestler in Florida, Curran used his scrambling ability to stay on the feet against an extremely dangerous grappler. He hit a beautiful switch to separate from a potentially hazardous rear-standing position.
As a striker, Curran looked sharp already, his combinations were tight, he worked the body, he doubled up on kicks, by the third round his footwork kept him off the cage and gave him dominant angles against Imada.
As a boxer specifically, he looked better than any of Alvarez’s opponents thus far. That clip at 1:07 of the above video is some of the finest footwork we’ve highlighted yet.
When he met Eddie Alvarez, he was the fighter we saw in that clip, but for a full 25 minutes. The “dart” entries and body work of Alvarez troubled Curran and his higher, static guard, but the younger man eventually adjusted and gave Alvarez all he could handle.
CLIP: Pat Curran goes skill for skill with Eddie Alvarez for 5 rounds (2011)
It’s essential to understand that this was one of the best versions of Eddie Alvarez we will ever see. He was mobile, leading on angles and coming back across to the body, his reflexes were sharp, his kicks were quick and powerful.
But Curran was equally formidable, punishing any errant entries with check hooks, interrupting leads with stiff, accurate jabs, punting the legs when Alvarez settled in. Curran’s use of the jab specifically was crucial and extremely impressive, he kept Alvarez on the end of his punches and measured him for his own leads or to time counters as Alvarez committed to his entry, even when those entries bypassed his jabbing hand.
Curran demonstrated his comfort and intelligence as a striker, eventually demonstrating several solutions to the tricky entries of Alvarez. He could block, pivot and cut off the darts with hooks in either direction, he could dip under straights and step off with counters, sometimes he would simply parry and fire back. Curran’s ability to strike and move and keep up with a fleet-footed Alvarez was outstanding. Demonstrating competency moving his head and countering alone puts Curran above the vast majority of MMA fighters on the feet.
Athletically, and as a wrestler, Curran was phenomenal, stifling nearly every shot by Alvarez, scrambling with him and punishing with knees and elbows from collar ties every single time. Even as a fighter who would soon cut to featherweight, Curran could match Alvarez for strength, balance and agility once they got into wrestling situations.
Curran was a strong, fit, durable wrestler with a deep boxing game and a multitude of offensive weapons on the feet. He was physical and accurate in the clinch, and a genuinely great MMA wrestler in Alvarez could not get a hold of him for the majority of the fight.
Why I’m so confident in rating Curran as quality, aside from the above evidence, is because of the run he went on less than three months later. Dropping to featherweight, Curran demolished the field, meeting then 19-2 international veteran Marlon Sandro in the challenge tournament finals. Once again Curran upset the tournament favorite, knocking Sandro stiff with a head kick.
Curran went on to execute Joe Warren, then defeat the world-class Patricio Pitbull by split decision.
While Curran was clearly improving at an impressive clip, he was a well-put together, dangerous, athletic fighter even when he fought Alvarez. I believe it took the drop in weight for Curran’s physical gifts to make a larger impact, so he receives a relatively lower rating for his fight with Alvarez.
Quality Win #5: 2012 Shinya Aoki (78)
Sweet revenge. Alvarez’s DREAM LWGP run set him up for a championship final against Shinya Aoki in 2008. Alvarez was unable to continue to the fight due to injuries sustained in his wars with Kawajiri and Hansen. Hansen took his place in the final, knocking out Aoki in a stunning upset.
Alvarez got his shot at Aoki on New Year’s Eve, but was unable to keep away from the grappling of Aoki, becoming ensnared in a leg entanglement and losing via heel hook.
Nearly four years later, Bellator brought Aoki in as a special challenge to give Alvarez’s brain a rest after a brutal war with Michael Chandler, and to give him the opportunity for retribution.
Rating
Even among more casual fans, Aoki is a known entity, so this will be brief.
One of the most dangerous submission threats of all time, Aoki has always lacked a real game on his feet, either advancing with long reaching punches or looking to intercept his opponent on their way in.
“Tōbikan Jūdan” does have an arsenal of trips and throws from ties, but his takedowns were not always reliable enough to get the fight where he wanted.
Alvarez played a longer game in his rematch against Aoki, forcing the grappler to wade in on him and expose himself to counter opportunities, which came quickly. Aoki’s takedown threat and grappling excellence make him a fighter worth rating, but his severe limitations and the absence of a “plan B” cap him as a “C+” fighter.
Quality Win #6: 2013 Michael Chandler (85)
Missouri All-American Michael Chandler had one of the most meteoric rises to prominence in MMA history.
The powerhouse wrestler made his Bellator debut one year into his pro career, and earned a bid to compete in Bellator’s Season Three lightweight tournament after two straight first-round finishes in the promotion.
His run to the finals saw him submit grappling ace Marcin Held, and use his wrestling to stifle an aggressive striker in Patricky Pitbull. He was now 9-0 less than two years into his pro career, earning a shot at Eddie Alvarez. Six months later, he survived a vicious third-round beating by Alvarez to rock and submit the champion in the fourth, the title was his.
While Alvarez worked his way to a rematch, Chandler blew away challengers with ease, using more measured, explosive right hands to smash veterans Akihiro Gono and David Rickels, and his wrestling and developing grappling to subdue judo Olympian and power-puncher Rick Hawn.
Rating
This was one of the absolute best versions of Michael Chandler to ever exist.
Already a legitimate freak athlete, Chandler was playing with a lot of ideas in regard to his boxing and striking in general that were enough to give Alvarez a serious look on the feet.
That improvement, no matter how small, gave Chandler a much better control of positioning in the cage, opening up opportunities to wrestle to the cage where he could overwhelm Alvarez on his shots, hitting powerful mat returns when Alvarez tried to scramble back to his feet.
CLIP: Indestructible juggernaut Michael Chandler clashes with Eddie Alvarez (2013)
While not much work came off of it, Chandler was incredibly persistent about using his jab against Alvarez. A common theme among quality Alvarez opponents is that they’re smart enough to recognize the counter punching threat and implement styles that force Alvarez to lead. Chandler’s jab truly troubled Alvarez, he was touched up on many occasions but its mere presence kept Chandler scoring and put pressure on Alvarez to make committed entries.
Combined with Chandler’s speed and mobility, it was an extremely practical tool.
Pretending to be a flashy boxer, Chandler at times moved his head and slipped the long straight leads of Alvarez, however offering him nothing in return. Chandler’s defensive head movement wasn’t particularly useful, but his ability to make Alvarez miss certainly gave him pause.
On the lead Chandler showed some nice looks, falling into his rear hand off the skip up low kick, weaving into his lead hook off the rear straight, low kicking at the end of long combinations. Chandler’s form and mechanics were nowhere near perfect, but power and enthusiasm applied to good ideas counts for something.
It was inconsistent, but Chandler even applied trickier tactics like level changing on the body jab and coming back up with the uppercut as Alvarez matched levels. He countered the naked low kicks of Alvarez on a hair trigger. It doesn’t necessarily add to his rating, but defeating skilled, athletic opponents who designed their game to beat you is essential for any all-time great.
Chandler gave Alvarez fits with his chained shots, mat returns and short offense while easily shutting down Alvarez’s takedown attempts and reattacking.
In a testament to his conditioning, explosivity and sheer competitive drive, Chandler launched himself upward for an incredible flying knee deep in the championship rounds.
Chandler’s skills could be deeper, but he was effective and dangerous as a striker, outstanding and persistent as a wrestler, and superb as an athlete. He challenged Alvarez in every position for a full five rounds, making a solid “B” his minimum threshold.
Quality Win #7: 2015 Gilbert Melendez (77)
Gilbert Melendez peaked in Strikeforce. The best run of his career was from 2009-2012, beginning and ending with classic battles with Josh Thomson, beating Shinya Aoki, Tatsuya Kawajiri and Jorge Masvidal in between.
At his best, Melendez had a high-paced boxing style combined with competent wrestling and an aggressive top game.
By the time he fought Eddie Alvarez, Melendez was 13 years into his pro career, and many of his physical talents were starting to wane. While Melendez’s two UFC losses at that point to Benson Henderson and Anthony Pettis were nothing to be concerned about, his win over Diego Sanchez certainly was.
Melendez was rocked and dropped by Sanchez, as the two traded recklessly several times in the messy brawl. After controlling bouts on the feet against more educated and dangerous boxers like Jorge Masvidal, this was an awful look.
Rating
Melendez showed some decent evasive head movement early on, attempting to stick Alvarez with his jab from the outside.
With his physicality on the decline, timing was key for Melendez. He waited on a committed lead from Alvarez, stepped in and smashed the eye of Alvarez with a rear elbow.
When Alvarez was hurt, Melendez hunkered down behind his jab on his way in, avoiding warning shots from Alvarez and working his way into the pocket safely.
Melendez consistently went to his jab on the outside to frustrate Alvarez, then leaned on intercepting shots to catch him on his way in. He couldn’t take Alvarez down, but shot attempts opened up striking opportunities on the break. His defensive wrestling wasn’t perfect, but he was able to stop a couple of Alvarez shots in open space and strike off of those as well.
It was one of the smarter performances of Melendez’s career, but he didn’t really have the physicality to push his advantages and his strategy fell apart once Alvarez was able to bait the counters and push past them. No glaring holes from Melendez, but his strengths weren’t quite strong enough to warrant a higher rating.
Quality Win #8: 2016 Anthony Pettis (83)
This is a win on Eddie Alvarez’s record, but based on how fights are supposed to be scored in the unified system, it should have gone to Pettis. Alvarez was lit up on the feet, and there was little to no resulting offense when he was able to control on the cage or take Pettis down.
At the time, Pettis was coming off the worst beating of his career, a title loss to a marauding Rafael dos Anjos. Prior to losing his belt, Pettis had finished Donald Cerrone, Benson Henderson and Gilbert Melendez, consecutively.
After getting pressured into the cage and beaten against it for 25 minutes against RDA, Pettis showed off some newfound tactics against Alvarez.
Rating
Understanding the striking threat posed by Pettis, Alvarez made sure to press Pettis back and shoot him to the fence with regularity. However, Pettis would not be held there like in his last fight.
Pettis consistently secured at least one underhook, and either dug a second or controlled the opposite wrist before angling Alvarez off the cage. From there he would strike and limp out, resetting to striking range in the center.
On the lead Pettis essentially styled on Alvarez, snapping off round kicks to the legs, body and head then sliding back out of range when Alvarez looked to counter. Pettis often played with the hands of Alvarez to draw up his guard before punting the body.
CLIP: Anthony Pettis lights up Eddie Alvarez (2016)
Alvarez had success kicking low, but any higher and Pettis was able to parry and return fire quickly. Pettis was prepared for the dart entry of Alvarez, taking his head off center and hitting the check hook to Alvarez’s exit side.
The check hook was huge for Pettis, he was consistently able to work back off Alvarez’s leads and interrupt combinations, sometimes even kicking off the hook or doubling up.
When Alvarez did press in to the pocket, or when they were still in tight after a clinch break, Pettis was dexterous and accurate in his use of knees, often timing the level change of Alvarez.
Technically, Pettis looked spectacular. Physically he either wasn’t quite the same athlete as just a couple of fights before, or his new approach for grinding wrestlers left him a bit flat. Either way, Pettis seemed depleted by the third round and Alvarez had a lot more success grounding him against the cage and eating clock. Regardless, this was one of Pettis’ best displays of ringcraft and an incredibly smart, disciplined performance.
Pettis showed some pivots when he was near the cage, but definitely could have had more urgency in that regard. His strikes seemed to have a little less heat on them than usual and his cardio didn’t quite hold over three rounds, that is most of what is keeping this version of Pettis from entering a stronger “B+” range.
Quality Win #9: 2016 Rafael dos Anjos (90)
Our own Sriram Muralidaran is taking on the full Rafael dos Anjos profile, his article will do a much better job than I ever could of giving RDA credit for the form he was in as lightweight champion.
In short, a savvy, nuanced top jiu jitsu player became incredibly physical and mastered the King’s MMA muay thai system. On one hand, RDA being a defined pressure fighter, whose pressure benefits greatly from the threat of his wrestling, played into Alvarez’s strengths. Alvarez was a fighter who was uniquely equipped to deal with that game at the time. On the other hand, dos Anjos was still an absurdly tough out for anyone at the time, and the smallest of tactical errors could have allowed RDA to get his game going and break down Alvarez.
It was a phenomenal performance, and without a doubt the most significant win of Alvarez’s career, for the title, no less.
Highlights of Alvarez’s win over RDA start at 1:08
Quality Win #10: 2017 Justin Gaethje (88)
Some call him “the violence idiot”, but Justin Gaethje does receive nearly enough credit for his objective skill as a mixed martial artist. An NCAA Division 1 All-American in a very tough 157-pound class, Gaethje chose to embrace life as a power-punching maniac, using his wrestling to keep opponents guessing and the fight on the feet.
When he met Eddie Alvarez, Justin Gaethje was undefeated at 18-0. He had faced a variety of styles, but no outstanding competitors in World Series of Fighting. After countless back-to-back wars, we began to see Gaethje’s defense developing, it all started with the double forearm guard.
By the time he reached his UFC debut against an athletic, skilled striker in Michael Johnson, Gaethje was in the best form of his career. While he still got tagged, it was more so a result of the volume of exchanges he forced, rather than gaping holes in his defense.
Rating
If you’re still questioning Justin Gaethje’s defensive savvy, it is mandatory that you read TFS author Josh Yandle’s breakdown on Gaethje.
To defeat one of the most dangerous fighters he’d ever encounter, Alvarez did his homework. The high guard of Gaethje had served him well, but it did leave his body open, the exact location depending on how tight Gaethje kept his elbows.
The most obvious strength of Gaethje’s displayed in this fight is his loyal pursuit of the low kick. Gaethje is such a prolific low kicker, I found it deserving of its own career highlight.
For most of the fight, Gaethje wasn’t static when he shelled up, he weaved and moved his head and fired back at Alvarez at every turn.
CLIP: Justin Gaethje takes Eddie Alvarez to the brink (2017)
Gaethje also showed off his ability as a handfighter, catching and parrying many Alvarez leads and either punching or low kicking off of them. He displayed impeccable timing, dipping off his guard to clock Alvarez with an overhand or left hook mid-combination.
The jab served as an extra tool for Gaethje to slide into the pocket and begin exchanges, winging wider shots from the outside got Gaethje countered on a number of occasions.
When Alvarez tried to catch Gaethje’s low kick and take him down, the standout wrestler bailed out to his hands and knees, waited for Alvarez to attempt to cover then essentially funk rolled, turning across his back and feeding Alvarez’s legs across his body, sending the former lightweight champion sailing past him.
Eventually, the body punching of Alvarez wore Gaethje down, who became a bit more plodding and stagnant. Even so, an exhausted Gaethje was still a massive threat, and he did not back down in the slightest. Gaethje more or less fought two full rounds while completely winded, continuing to take digging hooks to the gut while doing so.
There are so many technical looks to appreciate about Gaethje’s performance, from that perspective alone I believe he is a fighter worth rating. But what really shoots his rating into elite territory are physical factors. Gaethje is absurdly durable, a destructive hitter, mobile in spurts, as agile in the pocket as he is in a scramble, and even when tired, he can push through exhaustion to continue to push a pace and land punishing shots.
Concluding Thoughts
Alvarez walked through fire to take out Gaethje, RDA is his best win, but Gaethje is his greatest, it says the most about him as a fighter. You may have noticed many of Alvarez’s best wins had a ton of success against him, they pushed him to the edge. That’s Alvarez’s brand of greatness, he has flaws, he’s faced a score of opponents talented and brave enough to exploit those flaws, and he beat them anyway. He’s taken bad losses, but he’s put together several quality runs throughout his career, the sheer volume of quality wins cannot be ignored.
This will strike many as a peculiar way to assess a fighter’s greatness.
But, from my perspective, to analyze the skills of Alvarez himself would be a judgment of “best”, not “greatest”. Greatest is a measure of achievement, and in MMA, the basic unit of achievement is a win.
The ratings themselves are certainly arbitrary. Even among analysts with whom I share many opinions with, there will be rampant disagreements about where exactly a fighter falls on a 0-100 scale, who is worthy of the minimum “70” rating, and so on. What I can do is establish a baseline, and provide evidence to justify ratings comparatively.
As my own articles on the greatest of all time come out, you will be able to reference more and more examples of rated fighters. I’ve given Joseph Benavidez the same treatment, if you’re interested. I hope you enjoyed some newfound context on the best wins of Alvarez’s career, next up for me is arguably the greatest bantamweight of all time - keep reading The Fight Site to find out who that is.