Eddie Alvarez is only interested in one title these days: “most violent man in the UFC.”
Woe is the state of the UFC championship. What once added an element of prestige and actual stakes to a contest between two of a division’s most elite fighters is now being used as a cheap promotional prop to lure casual fans into a fight that they wouldn’t have blinked twice at otherwise. And even then, the chances are split that the person holding said cheap promotional prop even defends it before fleeing for the glamorous world of boxing, or just fleeing altogether.
At least, that’s how former lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez sees it. On the heels of an incredible knockout victory over rising contender Justin Gaethje at UFC 218, Alvarez forwent the usual title talk and instead bestowed a unique title upon himself.
“I’m the most violent man in the UFC,” Alvarez said on Philadelphia’s 93.3 WMMR. “They can take the No. 1, 2 and 3 (ranking). I’ll just take that title, and I’ll keep it. I’ve been crowned.”
It would be a hard title to argue that he doesn’t deserve given the Gaethje fight alone, but one that also seemed like an abrupt about face for a man who was holding onto an actual title just two fights prior.
So why the sudden change of heart? According to Alvarez, it’s simply a reaction to the continuously degrading merit of UFC titles in general over the past year, thanks in no small part to the man that took the took his away, Conor McGregor. During an appearance on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour, Alvarez laid out the grim realities he’d be facing were he to actually seek out another title run given the current logjam created by the whole “McGregor” situation.
“I’m a realist,” Alvarez said. “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.”
And perhaps because of the current crop of contenders looking to get a piece of a McGregor payday over anything else, Alvarez says that there’s not much value in the title left anyway.
“Right now, sh*t just isn’t defined with the title. And to be honest, there’s not a lot of value in it. What value is in it? 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.”
“The Underground King” makes a lot of valid points, sadly. Beyond McGregor’s apparent insistence on doing anything but defending his belt, the UFC, whether through its own fault or simply unfortunate circumstances, has lost a lot of the luster from its championships over the past year to say the least. Max Holloway was only just able to unify the featherweight belts in July (after Jose Aldo was promoted to undisputed champion in November of 2016), the light heavyweight division’s title picture has been in absolute chaos ever since Jon Jones decided to get busted for steroids again, and Dana White’s recent admission that he knew Georges St-Pierre would vacate the middleweight title as soon as he captured it certainly doesn’t add a lot of prestige to that weight class (even if it’s finally starting to move in the right direction under Robert Whittaker’s reign).
#UFC218 @Ealvarezfight – The King Of Violence pic.twitter.com/rAvMfrQJSu
— BossLogic (@Bosslogic) December 4, 2017
So perhaps Eddie’s onto something here. Maybe the control over who gets to call themselves the “champion” of anything should be taken out of the UFC’s hands and placed into that of the fighters themselves. If so, I’d like to offer a few suggestions for these fringe titles:
Meanest Mean Mug Champion: Robbie Lawler
Intergalactic Punching Champion: Francis Ngannou (obviously)
Chill Dawg World Chillweight Champion: Brian Ortega
The “I Can’t Believe Someone That Sweet Is That Violent” Champion: Holly Holm
Cursedweight Champion: Cain Velasquez
Matrix Champion: Demetrious Johnson
The “Only Way They Could Be Called An MMA Champion” Champion: C.M. Punk
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Jared Jones is a writer, musician, and filmmaker currently residing in Boston, MA. Angry comments can be directed to his Twitter and/or Facebook pages.
