Twenty eight times someone has got into the octagon with Khabib Nurmagomedov, 28 times they have lost, with 18 coming in the distance, but Eddie Alvarez believes he's the man to end the undefeated run.
Khabib's latest victory was his second defence of the UFC lightweight championship against Dustin Poirier at UFC 242, leading to questions as to who is next and can they stop the Russian.
One man believes that he's worked how to stop 'the Eagle' from soaring any more. Speaking to MMAJunkie former champ Eddie Alvarez revealed he believes he knows how to beat Khabib and he can implement the plan, saying, "I think it's going to take a certain style, and if you don't have that style, there's a certain style you have to implement to beat him, and I feel like I can implement that style the best in this division, and I don't know who else could.
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"When I think about the other competition and the top 10 in the UFC, and the other guys around, I don't know if they're able to implement the type of fight that you have to do to beat Khabib."
Asked about what that plan might be the 35-year-old referenced his second fight with Michael Chandler from Bellator in 2013, saying, "If you watch the second Michael Chandler fight, and you watch a fight like that where you have a guy who just throws a big punch, tries to run you to the cage, tries to rip you to the ground, and pound you out on the ground, it's like that's the style you have to implement on a guy like that to beat him.
"You can't stand in front of him. You've got to be able to move laterally. You've got to be able to shut down his wrestling, and when you do get into wrestling exchanges, you can't be dominated. You've got to have another wrestler who can match his wrestling."
Alvarez, who lost his title to Conor McGregor and has lost to Poirier, but beaten fellow potential title contender Justin Gaethje claimed he knew how Poirier's fight with Khabib would go, adding, "It went near according to the way I thought it would. I wasn't super surprised.
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"I'm not a big ground fighter. Like, that's not my goal when I go into a fight, and when I fought Dustin (Poirier) the second time, I found myself in positions where I was being dominant on the ground, and I didn't necessarily have a goal to do that.
"When I found out he was fighting Khabib, that's Khabib's whole game, right? So I thought to myself, if it's not even my goal and my thing, and I was dominating and about to finish a fight on the ground, I thought for sure Khabib would be able to get it done."
It's not yet known who Khabib's next opponent will be but Alvarez isn't really near the conversation with McGregor, Tony Ferguson and Georges St Pierre all having been spoken about being in the mix.
Can anyone stop Khabib?
Featured Image Credit:Topics:ย Khabib Nurmagomedov, Conor Mcgregor, Georges St Pierre, Dustin Poirier, UFC 242, UFC News, MMA News, Tony Ferguson, UFC, eddie alvarez, Lightweight division, MMA