Joel Álvarez says that The Phenomenon must be locked up. The first is the person, he in his splendor; The second is a top 15 lightweight in the UFC, someone dangerous, sportingly speaking. The Asturian mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter has gained the favor of the Spanish fans and, little by little, he is also doing so with those who pay the tickets on the other side of the pond. The man from Gijón is a simple, humble guy who, thanks to his fighting style (22 wins, 22 finishes) has managed to make a name for himself among the elite of his sport. After his last victory in Tampa (Florida), he managed to sit at the table where the important UFC athletes eat. And there he rests, while he rests with his family and thinks about what his next ‘shot’ will be, back in the month of may. In the meantime, pay attention to ABC MMA to take stock of what has been done, and how much there is still to go.
-After the spectacular KO in December in Tampa, how was your return to ‘normal’ life in Gijón? I imagine you will become more and more popular…
-Life is the same. They already knew me before the UFC, and Gijón is not a very big city, it is not Madrid, we all know each other, as they say. It’s true that they know more and more what I do, but life continues to flow.
-It had been a very hard year, but it ended very well. What was the first thing you did when you got home?
-I came home and my wife was working and the girl was at school. I picked up the dog and lay down on the couch for a while to enjoy it for a while. Then I had to take it out and I began to assimilate everything that had happened in those last ten days in Florida. Many times we don’t process, it happened and it happened, but it’s cool to see how everything has gone, how the year started off in a nosedive and things ended well. The walk with the dog filled me up quite a bit.
-And what was the first thing you ate?
-I think it was a box of ice cream that was around the house. I don’t remember it well because I’ve eaten a lot since I came back (laughs).
-Have you noticed growth since your last victory?
-On social networks my number of followers has increased a lot, I notice that people are super dedicated to me. More than supporting the athlete, I support the person, and that is a very nice part. Because I always saw that they supported El Fenómeno, not Joel Álvarez, who are like two different beings.
-Does there come a time when you get confused between people?
-For me it is simple: I am always Joel Álvarez. And The Phenomenon is usually for combat, to bring out that violence that is locked away. The Phenom is that violent guy, that crooked guy who probably got me into trouble at the time. We’re going to leave it out of the way and only come out when it has to go out. In my head I’m Joel, a cool guy, calm, buddy… But to fight I need the other guy.
-Does that guy locked up come out during the weight cut? It is a moment in which you are bordering on human misery due to how extreme the weight loss process is.
-Yes, it is necessary for him to come out, because he has more balls. It helps me forget about all the good things and just think about what I’m going to do and I’m going to achieve it, I have to move forward.
-Let’s talk calmly about the fight against Drakkar Klose. There is a picture that has gone viral in which your opponent is looking scared and you are going after him forward. What did you think at that moment?
-Everything is very fast. At the high level, you notice a lot of body language, how they move, how they react to your feints, the moment I touched him and I saw him scared, his reaction I knew was going to be to go that way, for I entered that with my knee, we had gone over it a lot. There are many details in that fight. When he comes towards me I hit him with a hook to the liver and his body generated a ‘stop’ and that’s when I start with all three hands, everything is very studied, it’s very millimetric.
-Once you got home and assimilated everything, were you able to talk to your manager, Ali Abdelazziz, to see how he viewed your latest triumph?
-Yes, I spoke with Ali and he told me not to lose my weight too much, that they were very happy in the UFC with me. I told him that starting in May I would be ready to fight again. He told me that was perfect and that he would try to improve the contract and renew it upwards. All good news.
-Before your fight with Klose you said that you would do one more fight at lightweight (70 kilos) and that you would go up to welterweight (77 kilos). But you entered the top 15 for lightweight. Have you thought about it? Do you think you could extend your stay in the light a little more with the belt being relatively close?
-It is hard to lose 70 kilos. I have one last bullet. People ask me to stay in the light, they are very excited about everything. Others tell me that for my health I should move up a division, that there is more life after this. I go step by step. The next shot will be at 70 kilos. And then, God will say. But if they want me to continue on the light weight it has to be very spaced, I have to do a long weight cut and diet. And then a good rest to stabilize. The body becomes destabilized after these processes. It would be fighting every six months, twice a year and it would be little action.
-Joel, you have always said that you are a UFC worker and that you fight to give the best life to your family. If you win your next fight, maybe you will get names from the top 10 or top 5 and the money you would receive would be much higher when negotiating. Don’t you think that you would be more interested, in that case, in staying in the light even if it is with less activity?
-Yes, in that case I would stay. I remember Sean O’Malley saying that he didn’t want to fight against those at the top of the rankings because he wanted to renew his contract first. I see it a little the same. There is always the hunger for glory but it is not going to be what feeds my daughter and my family. Ali told me that there may be a contract renewal, so we are going to go for this last one of the lightweight and if things continue well… who knows. If they give me a jump against big names… well yes. But it’s very hard for me to go down lightly.
-Will the next fight be in the United States?
-I like to fight more in Europe or Abu Dhabi, but I think so.
-And what names from the top 15 would you like to face in the lightweight?
-I like Dan Hooker and I love Charles Oliveira’s style. I like fun fights.
-When that division rise arrives. What expectations do you have at welterweight?
-Above all, have more activity fighting, compete less time. Furthermore, if you look at the top 15, they are almost all ‘strikers’, and those are the fights that catch my attention. I like welterweight. And I want to know how I perform at that weight, I would lose reach, but I would gain strength. I want to see that transformation.
-Any rival that you have thought of in that division?
-I love Vicente Luque, or Santiago Ponzinibbio.
-Right now you are the UFC fighter with the best finish ratio in your professional victories: 22 wins and 22 finishes (17 submissions and 5 knockouts). Do you have pressure to maintain that brand?
-I always want to win, if it has to be by decision, let it be like that, although I don’t know how it is because I never got there (laughs). When I fought in Elves Brenner, I saw that the third round was coming and the guy didn’t stop and I told my boss that we were going to reach a decision, because he didn’t stop and didn’t come for me. The moment he came for me, I caught him on the back foot. I was regretting that I wasn’t going to be able to finish, so you always have that thought there, because being a finisher is my personal brand.
-You have already fought nine times in the UFC and obviously the contract is increasingly more succulent. It is also true that the professional life of a fighter has an expiration date. Have you trained yourself to invest those monetary amounts that are coming in?
-I have an advisor for all this. I live well, I have my house paid for and everything tied up. Now I am looking to the future, to continue investing in real estate assets. When all this is over, I want to lead a similar life, without the sacrifice of fighting myself. I never had anything and now I have my car, my motorcycle, my house… I say: damn, you’ve earned it! Looking to the future, I want to continue maintaining this standard of living. And have a quiet life.
-Changing the third and closing the interview, there is an iconic moment in your fights which is when you go out to fight with a rosary, which you take off and place on your coach. How important is God to you?
-I trust in the Lord, because whenever I have been down in life, almost nothing solved it for me other than talking to God. There is something that often drives us to get out of the hole, in the screwed up moments I talk to Him. I ask Him for help. And it doesn’t help me that I’ve won a fight or how strong I am, my faith helps me. For me it plays a quite important level.
-Thank you very much, Joel, and good luck for 2025.
-Thank you very much!
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