Former UFC lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez was part of one of the most historic and memorable fights in UFC history. After all, his 2016 UFC 205 clash against the then-ascendant featherweight champ Conor McGregor was where the Irishman became the UFC’s first two-division concurrent champion. Moreover, McGregor’s ungodly performance catapulted him to the top of the sport.

While that fight is remembered for McGregor’s double title glory and UFC’s first outing at the iconic Madison Square Garden, the story of that fight hasn’t been told from Alvarez’s point of view. If ‘The Underground King’ had indeed beat McGregor, he may have been one of the biggest stars in the sport, or at least have gotten the type of adoration and respect Nate Diaz gets from the fans. However, McGregor wiped the floor with Alvarez, delivering unmatched wizardry to slay him under two rounds.

Alvarez still rues that day and opened up about the reasons for his terrible performance on a podcast episode with Michael Bisping. “In 205, when I fought Conor, I was coming off the title [win]. When I won the world title against Dos Anjos, and I think for me, it wasn’t so much the fight with Connor that was overwhelming.”

The former 155lbs champ added, “It was my change of lifestyle being UFC champion- that was over overwhelming for me. If I could go back, in retrospect I would have given myself a little bit of time to digest it before I actually fought as a defending champion. The whole whirlwind of media of obligations and all that I never wanted. I wanted the money, and I wanted the belt,” Alvarez told Bisping on his YouTube channel.

Of course, having so much money and so much media attention would have been a huge change for Alvarez. It seems the former lightweight champ found the endless media obligations especially hard, and his preparations and camp suffered as a result which was reflected in the McGregor fight. While Alvarez feels that the McGregor fight did not reflect who he was as a fighter, he still has immense regrets about it since that is the fight he is most well-known for.

“I never understood, like I didn’t understand that world of media, of obligations, of having to be somewhere and talk and talk and talk about the fight. Conor was excellent at that, he was well-trained at it… I guess I forgave myself [for the McGregor loss], but in my competitive career, it’s very difficult. Because although I know it’s not who I am, how I competed in this one night, it is how you’re defined by a large audience… I’ll never be able to truly digest it in a good way,” a pensive Alvarez added. On the other hand, in retrospect, McGregor beating Alvarez was probably not good for ‘Mystic Mac’ either.

How the Eddie Alvarez fight killed the ‘young and hungry’ version of Conor McGregor

Although no one knew it at the time, the Alvarez fight was the apogee of Conor McGregor’s career. It all went downhill from there. After winning his second title, ‘Mystic Mac’ got the type of superstardom never before seen in the sport. A year after the Alvarez fight, the Irishman went to box Floyd Mayweather, where he became an extremely wealthy man.

This was then followed by the biggest fight in UFC history- Conor McGregor vs. Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 229. The Irishman of course, lost that fight and has won only one more fight since then. To be fair, ‘Mystic Mac’ has only fought thrice in the seven years since UFC 229, but that in itself tells you how much McGregor changed after beating Alvarez.

Today, the former two-division champ is among the most detested fighters in the entire promotion, with his recent legal troubles and decision to box Logan Paul instead of returning to the UFC having added to his unpopularity. Fans, of course, want the old, young, and hungry McGregor back.

Unfortunately, it seems ‘Prime McGregor’ died the day he beat Eddie Alvarez, and what we have today is a shell of the man and fighter he once was. But maybe, just maybe, if he had lost to Alvarez on that historic night, McGregor might still have the same fire he had before he entered the octagon at UFC 205. What do you think about Eddie Alvarez’s comments about his iconic outing against Conor McGregor?