MMA's version of Mayweather vs. Pacquiao finally takes place in UFC 188
As hard as it might be to believe, it took longer to get a hotly anticipated fight between Eddie Alvarez and Gilbert Melendez made than it did for boxing promoters to finalize the long-awaited, much talked about mega-fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao.
The first was initially discussed sometime in 2007 and talks were held off and on throughout the years since.
Neither man was in the same organization until Alvarez signed with the UFC last year. But they were perceived for years as Nos. 1-2 in the world among lightweights, and there were always efforts of some sort made at putting them together.
Alvarez is nothing if not blunt and direct. Ask him a question and he gives you an answer, even if it may not be what you want to hear.
Business always seemed to get in the way of a match between them. Alvarez went so far as to go on "Inside MMA" on what was then known as HDNet in order to help facilitate the fight.
No matter what he did, it didn't seem to be enough. Melendez held the Strikeforce lightweight belt for some of that time, and Alvarez said he believes that then-Strikeforce boss Scott Coker didn't want the pair to square off.
"I don't know if Coker truly believed in Gilbert," Alvarez said. "Gilbert was telling the media he wanted to fight me, and I kept doing everything I could to make myself available. When I was in Bellator, I went to [former CEO] Bjorn Rebney and asked him for the fight or for permission to fight Gilbert and he gave me his blessing. The only person who needed to approve it was Coker and it didn't happen."
Alvarez went so far as to call in to talk to Coker when Coker was appearing on Ariel Helwani's popular MMA show, "The MMA Hour."
Nothing worked until they finally wound up in the same organization. On Saturday, they meet at UFC 188 in Mexico City in a bout with the very real potential to steal the show.
Alvarez isn't jumping up and down, seemingly annoyed it's taken so long to get done.
"About [expletive] time, huh?" Alvarez said.
Indeed. It's about time.
And it's about time the world recognizes Alvarez for the elite talent that he has long been.
He's been fighting the best in the world for years, but because he didn't make it to the UFC until last year, he wasn't afforded the recognition by the masses that his skills demanded.
He debuted in the UFC against one of the division's hottest fighters, Donald Cerrone, at UFC 178. After a solid first round, Cerrone took over and dominated the final two rounds en route to a unanimous decision.
It was so wide that UFC president Dana White suggested that Alvarez wasn't big enough to compete in the promotion's stacked lightweight division.
He recommended that Alvarez drop to featherweight, which is equally filled with elite talent. The difference, White said, is that Alvarez would more or less be on equal terms size-wise with the featherweights.
Alvarez, though, didn't consider it for a moment.
"Never," he said. "Forty-five? I walk around at 85, sometimes 86. Although I'm shorter, all of my weight I carry in my back and my butt. That's where most of my weight is. I've been dominant at lightweight long enough that I don't even consider it.
"If you're not successful at a certain weight, it rarely has anything to do with gaining or losing 10 pounds. It's something inside of you that you need to fix in order to win. It rarely has anything to do with cutting 10 pounds."
So he's back at it preparing to face Melendez in a critical fight for both men.
The division is so close that losses are magnified and even more significant than they are in some others. Alvarez is coming off the loss to Cerrone, while Melendez is trying to rebound from a submission loss to Anthony Pettis in a title fight last year.
And though Cerrone did great damage with his leg kicks and seemed to win by a wide margin, Alvarez isn't ashamed of his performance and doesn't take his UFC debut as a failure.
"He did a good job executing," Alvarez said of Cerrone. "I had him out in the first. I thought when I hurt him I was going to be able to take him out in the first round, but he did a good job recovering and keeping his composure. He came back and stuck to his guns and did some really good damage on me in the second round.
"Midway through the second, I was done. I was trying to tell myself to stay in it and I was trying to convince myself that I was going to land a shot. My leg was chewed up pretty good. He did a good job chewing my leg up. I tried to fight through it, but give him credit for executing. It's something I am going to apply myself."
Alvarez said he's had enough experience that a loss won't overwhelm him. He's learned from it, he says, and made the necessary adjustments.
Fighting is a physical activity, but it also is very mental and requires a calm that is sometimes difficult to achieve. Alvarez, who went through a trying court case in order to be free of his Bellator contract, said he's better able to handle everything that comes with being a fighter that doesn't actually involve fighting.
He thinks that's why he's as dangerous now as he's ever been.
"Fighting in general, but especially when I was younger, was tough to deal with because there are so many external things going on that want to control you that most people have no clue about," Alvarez said. "Whether it's a promoter, your manager, the fans, everything. Everybody's telling you what you should be, what you shouldn't be, what you should do and what you shouldn't do.
"I'm at a point in my life and my career where I'm OK with who I am. I don't need to be told what I am or what I should do or if I beat this guy it means I'm good or if I lose to that guy it means I'm bad. I'm at peace with myself and I know what I do every day in my training will speak for itself, and success will be a byproduct. I'm just enjoying the journey."
And finally, the journey will take him to a closed cage where the highly regarded Gilbert Melendez will be standing on the other side.
It's about time.
