How did Alvarez become champion?

quantiqus said:
Alvarez had only three fights in UFC before his big win against RDA
- a decision loss against Cerrone
- a split decision win against Melendez, who was also new in UFC and he was 1-1
- a split decision win against Pettis

How did he got a title shot?
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He beat the guy that held the belt.
 
Reddd said:
Yeah, just totally ignore that for years he was considered the best guy in the world at 155 outside of the UFC
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None of that has ever mattered, ask Hector Lombard and a gang of others.

Eddie, of whom I am a huge fan for years, showed up to the UFC and got the brakes beaten off him by Cowboy.

He then won two very controversial split decisions back to back. Typically, this shouldn't land you a title shot. TS is noting a perfectly valid point here, that in the deepest division in the sport, Eddie caught a break getting his shot.

Fortunately for Eddie, he made the most of it and blasted RDA.

For some perspective, when Eddie was given his title shot coming off two split decisions and a loss, Tony Ferguson was on a 7 fight win streak in the UFC. He beat Tibau, Thomson and Barboza putting two of them away spectacularly. Khabib was also on a 7 fight win streak, including running over RDA.

There is zero doubt about it, Eddie was given a title shot ahead of several more deserving fighters. That is just how the business of MMA is run though.
 
rjmbrd said:
None of that has ever mattered, ask Hector Lombard and a gang of others.

Eddie, of whom I am a huge fan for years, showed up to the UFC and got the brakes beaten off him by Cowboy.

He then won two very controversial split decisions back to back. Typically, this shouldn't land you a title shot. TS is noting a perfectly valid point here, that in the deepest division in the sport, Eddie caught a break getting his shot.

Fortunately for Eddie, he made the most of it and blasted RDA.

For some perspective, when Eddie was given his title shot coming off two split decisions and a loss, Tony Ferguson was on a 7 fight win streak in the UFC. He beat Tibau, Thomson and Barboza putting two of them away spectacularly. Khabib was also on a 7 fight win streak, including running over RDA.

There is zero doubt about it, Eddie was given a title shot ahead of several more deserving fighters. That is just how the business of MMA is run though.
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Don't sit here and act like the prior 4 or 5 guys before him that held the belt didn't lose to guys in their division before. If you get your opportunity to fight for the belt, you make the most of it. He did. He had beaten several other guys, and had also just beaten the other guy that held the belt before RDA. He also won it by finish, and didn't hesitate to defend it right away which is a lot more than what I can say about a lot of these other fighters.
 
Reddd said:
Don't sit here and act like the prior 4 or 5 guys before him that held the belt didn't lose to guys in their division before. If you get your opportunity to fight for the belt, you make the most of it. He did. He had beaten several other guys, and had also just beaten the other guy that held the belt before RDA. He also won it by finish, and didn't hesitate to defend it right away which is a lot more than what I can say about a lot of these other fighters.
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I can't defend points I never made.

What I am saying is objectively true - Tony Ferguson was on a 7 fight win streak over top 10 ranked opponents and he won definitively, including Tibau, Thomson and Barboza in a row.

There is no sane way on earth to explain how Eddie gets his ass spectacularly kicked by Cowboy, then eeks out two controversial split decisions, and jumps the line.

It was a business decision by the UFC.

The rest is another discussion.
 
rjmbrd said:
None of that has ever mattered, ask Hector Lombard and a gang of others.

Eddie, of whom I am a huge fan for years, showed up to the UFC and got the brakes beaten off him by Cowboy.

He then won two very controversial split decisions back to back. Typically, this shouldn't land you a title shot. TS is noting a perfectly valid point here, that in the deepest division in the sport, Eddie caught a break getting his shot.

Fortunately for Eddie, he made the most of it and blasted RDA.

For some perspective, when Eddie was given his title shot coming off two split decisions and a loss, Tony Ferguson was on a 7 fight win streak in the UFC. He beat Tibau, Thomson and Barboza putting two of them away spectacularly. Khabib was also on a 7 fight win streak, including running over RDA.

There is zero doubt about it, Eddie was given a title shot ahead of several more deserving fighters. That is just how the business of MMA is run though.
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Great post. That's what I was trying to say when I opened the thread. Ferg was clearly more deserving, he was with UFC for many years, he had a great record in UFC, he finished some well ranked guys. Khabib too, although I don't remember if he was offered a fight in that period.

And no, I don't consider Alvarez a paper champ or something like that, I think he is actually a good fighter. Some may say that he was lucky with RDA, but you cannot rule out luck in a fight. All I am saying is that Ferg was more deserving.
 
20falarVerdades said:
Lol, Bellator fighters are so overrated. Should Will Brooks have gotten a title shot as well ? He beat Chandler twice, something Eddie could never do. In the UFC, Brooks couldnt even beat a top 10 FW(Charles Oliveira)
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No. Fighters from Bellator (and other promitions) are often UNDERRATED as much as they're overrated. UFC WW Title Contender, Lorenz Larkin is 0-2 in Bellator. Matter of circumstance, and styles make fights.
 
rjmbrd said:
I can't defend points I never made.

What I am saying is objectively true - Tony Ferguson was on a 7 fight win streak over top 10 ranked opponents and he won definitively, including Tibau, Thomson and Barboza in a row.

There is no sane way on earth to explain how Eddie gets his ass spectacularly kicked by Cowboy, then eeks out two controversial split decisions, and jumps the line.

It was a business decision by the UFC.

The rest is another discussion.
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The thing is Tony was never ranked ahead of Eddie.
In 2014 UFC Eddie was ranked #4 on Sherdog's world LW rankings.
Having lost to Cowboy he ended up as low as #10 on the UFC rankings in january 2015.
At this time Tony wasn't top 10.

2015 was a great year for Tony, beating Tibau, Thomson, Barboza and by january 2016 he was ranked #5.

But Alvarez beat higher ranked guys.
And at the end of January 2016 he had beaten #4 Melendez and #1 Pettis.

That means Eddie had fought everyone in the top 5 except RDA - so there was nowhere for him to go but down, or title shot.
Since he had championship experience, and had been considered a top 10 fighter by Sherdog for a few years, I bet they figured it seemed more reasonable to give him the title shot before Tony - who still was relatively fresh in the top10, and had other top5 guys he hadn't fought yet.

Quoting my previous post for more info
IsNormal said:
Following up my last post:

Sherdog LW rankings May 2014:
1. Pettis 2. Benson 3. Melendez 4. Alvarez 5.Thomson 6.Khabib 7. Nate 8. RDA 9. Will Brooks 10. Michael Chandler
Proves Eddie and Melendez were both very highly ranked.

UFC LW rankings, january 2015
Champ: Pettis, 1. RDA 2. Khabib 3. Cerrone 4. Melendez 5. Bendo 6. Barboza 7. Thomson 8. Jury 9. Green 10. Eddie
*Eddie got a surprisingly low ranking. Sure, he did lose his debut, but I think they were just holding out til he proved he would cut it in the UFC.

With Cerrone beating Bendo, Jury and Barboza and them falling down the rankings that left space for Eddie to jump to #4 after he beat highly ranked Melendez.
Side note: At the time, Ferguson was just only bypassing Jury at #8.

UFC LW rankings january 2016:
Champ: RDA 1. Pettis 2.Khabib 3. Cerrone 4. Alvarez 5. Ferguson 6. MJ 7. Diaz 9. Dariush 10. Iaquinta

As you can see Pettis was still the no1 contender after losing to RDA. So beating Pettis was a HUGE deal for Alvarez, that earned him title shot.

Who else should've got it?
Cerrone had just lost his.
Khabib? Surely he had beaten RDA before, but he didn't have any other big wins, that win over Horcher didn't do enough for him compared to Alvarez beating the no1 contender.
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IsNormal said:
The thing is Tony was never ranked ahead of Eddie.
Before the UFC Eddie was ranked #4 on Sherdog's world LW rankings.
Having lost to Cowboy he ended up as low as #10 on the UFC rankings in january 2015.
But by then Tony wasn't top 10 (this was before he face Tibau)
2015 was a great year for Tony, beating Tibau, Thomson, Barboza and by january 2016 he had rocketed into #5.

But Alvarez was ahead of Tony to begin with, and then he beat Melendez, who was higher ranked than any of the 3 guys Tony had faced ( #4 on Sherdog's world rankings in 2014 and #4 in the UFC rankings 2015, when Alvarez beat him)

And then Alvarez beat Pettis who was still ranked #1 at the time.

So Alvarez had the better wins

Quoting myself for extra details:
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The rankings don't mean anything, and 'world rankings' outside of the UFC mean less then nothing. Thats why we don't really know how Hector Lombard and Alvarez stacked up against their peers until they actually fought them.

As the story goes, Eddie showed up and got the ever loving brakes beaten off him by Cowboy.

Both Pettis and Gil were in career skids, and Eddie eeked past them in controversial split decisions.

That should not put you in title contention.

Tony was on a 7 fight win streak, so was Khabib. Booking Eddie for the belt was a business decision, and that is how modern MMA is run.

History upheld what I am saying - Gil and Pettis continue their career skids, Tony continues his epic win streak.
 
rjmbrd said:
The rankings don't mean anything, and 'world rankings' outside of the UFC mean less then nothing. Thats why we don't really know how Hector Lombard and Alvarez stacked up against their peers until they actually fought them..
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But if we're talking about how the UFC should've ranked someone or decided who should've got a title shot - shouldn't rankings play a big part in that? :S
rjmbrd said:
Both Pettis and Gil were in career skids, and Eddie eeked past them in controversial split decisions.
[...]
Tony was on a 7 fight win streak.
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You're dismissing Eddie's opponents, but you praise Tony's win streak without looking closer at his opponents.
The first 4 were Rio, Kikuno, Castillo and Trujillo. Not really impressive names.
Considering Eddie had fought his way to the belt in Bellator, and fought 3/5 of the UFC's top-five (before he fought RDA and made that 4/5...with the fifht being himself) one could argue that overall he had a higher level of competition so it wasn't strange that he also had more losses.

But since I'm going a lot by rankings here and you're not I guess we'll just agree to disagree.
 
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Don't get the Eddie hate on this board. Conor starched him yes but before that many were betting Eddie would outwrestle Conor to a decision.

Recently Kevin Lee got finished by Ferguson and no one has been calling him overrated or has a 'suspect ground game' after hyping the guy up like no tomorrow.

They probably decide who to hate on based on Conor which is kinda silly.
 
He became champion because someone brought out the dog. You never want to do that with Eddie.
 
He made a deal with the devil. Only way his sorry ass could have gotten the job done
 
Juventud said:
He beat an RDA off roids.

If you can't see the difference between RDA before he started his title run & when he won it you need glasses.
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how is RDA beating up much bigger men now?
 
Because he asked to get one. And actually has more than an ounce of personality.
 
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