The coup of authority carried out by Joel Álvarez (Gijón, 1993) During the early hours of this Sunday in the last UFC event of the year they have allowed him to hang a new medal in his sports hat. The Asturian added his seventh victory in the largest mixed martial arts league in the world after knocking out Drakkar Klose with a spectacular jumping knee, leaving the American out of action in just 2 minutes and 48 seconds. The maturity he showed during the fight, which took place in Tampa, Florida, was enormous and gave the impression that the octagon is the space where all his energies are aligned to flow in a way that results in a true spectacle for the players. sports fans. However, the man from Ijgon, who flees from the cameras and the grandiloquence of social networks, has always assured that his goal is not to have many titles, nor to think about rankings, is being a good father.
The Phenom, as he is nicknamed, has shown off being a UFC worker, a worker whose overalls are only a pair of shorts and four-ounce gloves. But the reality is that, after the level shown in his last lawsuit in the United States, he has no limits, only those that he sets for himself. With that performance, Joel Álvarez raises his professional record to 22 victories and all of them ended before reaching the cards, with 5 knockouts and 17 submissions, a figure within the reach of very few privileged people. “I am very happy, now I want to enjoy with my girls (his daughter and her partner), with my family,” he told ABC exclusively immediately after leaving the Amalie Arena in Tampa in shock. There have been four exhaustive preparations this year, with enormous wear and tear since the training camps are usually 6 to 10 weeks, not being able to go up to the cage on two of those occasions due to visa problems that have now been resolved.
The horizon is promising for him, since his name is already on the table within the lightweight division (155 pounds, 70.3 kilograms) and in his next fight he should aim for the top 15, that is, sitting in the table where the stars of this sport eat. However, the hardship involved in losing almost 15 kilos while measuring 1.90 meters and not having any fat to pull from has led him to make the decision to move up the category to welterweight (170 pounds, 77.1 kilos). «The horizon now is to be calm and enjoy, think about 170 pounds. If not, I would like to fight at the UFC event in Spain at lightweight if it happens once and for all.. “I will wait as long as it takes, I am in no hurry to fight now,” he told this newspaper after concluding his performance on American soil. Joel Álvarez is clear that he reserves a ‘last dance’ in the lightweight category, where he is already very well positioned, but there will be no turning back. «I have already talked about it with my team, it is a decision made, it is for health. The weight cuts are very excessive, very hard, I think one last shot, I have the revolver with a bullet in the light weight,” explained the Asturian.
The reality is that the arrival of the UFC in Spain is being a headache for the largest mixed martial arts organization in the world. The fact of having Ilia Topuria requires that her landing be at a pay-per-view event in the United States, and there are only 14 evenings of this type reserved in the annual calendar, the vast majority already scheduled elsewhere. Furthermore, the low availability of venues, since the Santiago Bernabéu is too big and the WiZink Center has most of its dates closed, has led to the idea that they could come with a more humble event, the so-called Fight Night. After his victory, Joel Álvarez has gained weight enough to be able to lead a gala of this type, but the CEO of the UFC, Dana White, was in charge of assuring a question from ABC that when they come they want to do it with all the heavy artillery, it is say with a numbered event. But The Phenomenon would already have a name in mind in case he had to headline or participate in a UFC Spain.
«I really like fighting against Paddy Pimblett because of the style he brings and Benoit Saint-Denis has a very striking style. They are people who stop to exchange, I like them for my way of competing, they are good names and to be the headliner in Spain would be the bomb,” the Asturian assured this newspaper from the Amalie Arena, surrounded by his team, who It resembles Pancho Villa’s Army more than Don Pelayo’s, due to its particular grace in developing its things. All possibilities are open. For the moment, he wants to rest and structure his career, while resting in a position that is beginning to be of great importance in the UFC and key to the consolidation of Spain as an emerging market in this sports organization. Joel Álvarez will aim for his return in May, but in the meantime he will continue training hard, working to continue being a worker whose sky is the limit.
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