The much-talked about move of Eddie Alvarez to ONE Championship is official and the 34-year-old mixed martial artist recently spoke to media in a worldwide conference call. He mentioned that he is looking forward to facing an entirely new breed of lightweights, led no less by reigning champion Martin Nguyen.
"My career has brought me all across the globe. I have surveyed the competition, and it looks fierce. I am excited to be able to test my skills against some of ONE Championship’s best talent," said Alvarez in the ONE FC conference call held earlier this morning.
As mentioned in a previous post, Alvarez will find himself in an elite division filled with rising big names in the mixed martial arts world. Aside from "The Situ-Asian", there are established ONE fighters such as Eduardo Folayang and Honorio Banario of the Philippines, Amir Khan of Singapore, EV Ting of New Zealand and Shinya Aoki of Japan.
Alvarez will get to see some of the fighters in the lightweight division at ONE: Heart of the Lion happening on Nov. 9 at the Singapore Indoor Stadium in Singapore. Among the lightweight mixed martial artists seeing action include the one between Kota Shimoshi of Osaka, Japan and Adrian Pang of Queensland, Australia as well as the clash between Sung Jong Lee of Cheonan, South Korea and Garry Tonon of New Jersey, USA.
These cards will pave the way for a couple of interesting main events. ONE Women’s Strawweight World Champion “The Panda” Xiong Jing Nan tests ONE Women’s Atomweight World Champion “Unstoppable” Angela Lee while the co-main event will have ONE Bantamweight World Champion Bibiano “The Flash” Fernandes taking on ONE Interim Bantamweight World Champion Kevin “The Silencer” Belingon.
For now, Alvarez will be a spectator as he assesses the competition. It will also be interesting on whether ONE Championship CEO Chatri Sityodtong would immediately grant the "Underground King" a title-shot or face one of the primed fighters the company has to date.
Alvarez was signed to a multi-bout contract, acknowledged to be one of the best martial artists in the world today. He is one of the biggest signings that ONE Championship has had to date and plans for him have yet to be revealed. Seeing how he is a big name that can certainly draw in MMA fans, that shouldn't take long. If not before the end of 2018, he is likely to be inserted in one of the main events that ONE FC has lined up for 2019.
Recognized for his well-rounded skills and unwavering will to win, Alvarez now joins the ONE Championship lightweight division looking to continue his legendary career in the world’s largest martial arts organization.
