Eddie Alvarez Says He’s Rolling The Dice On Last Fight Of UFC Contract

In an interview with MMA Fighting, Eddie Alvarez spoke about the upcoming final fight of his current UFC contract, when he’ll fight Dustin Poirier at UFC on FOX 30. Here are highlights:

On his rematch with Poirier: “I’m betting on myself. There wasn’t a new contract signed, and whoever — whether it’s his camp, or whoever’s camp out there that is kinda putting that out there, that’s bullcrap. I’m not this new guy coming in who signed this new, giant, great deal. That’s not what happened. I sat down with Dana (White) and the UFC, and we’re still very cordial, we’re still talking. There was no deal signed, but there’s a point in every fighter’s career where sometimes you roll the dice on yourself. Sometimes you believe in yourself and you roll the dice. I like to put myself in a very emotional state, and I think by rolling the dice on myself, putting my back against the wall — in the past I’ve done really well there, so I’m kinda putting my own back against the wall and I’m rolling the dice and I’m betting on me.”

On not wanting to delay the rematch: “Everything is really good between all of us, all parties. We just haven’t come to an agreement. Every deal is different, and every deal takes more time than the next, so I have a feeling we’ll get something done. Right now it’s not, so rather than elongate the process, say ‘I’m not going to fight’ and stomp my foot down and be a baby, I said let’s fight. Let’s just fight. Let’s fight. And then we’ll figure it out along the way. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t. But I think we’re all talking and everything is going well. So I’m happy with the way things are going, but I think it’s more important — fans are yelling and screaming about this fight, everybody wants it, and I think it’s more important that we put this fight on for the fans.”

On making the right decision: When I fought Dustin, Dustin did well. And a lot of guys do well against me. He pounds his chest and says he did well. A lot of guys do well. A lot of guys were winning against me. If I can count on my hands who was winning against me, there’s a lot of you guys out there. But you didn’t win. And then when I came back, I felt his spirit break. And this is an honest assessment. I’m not trying to be mean or start a fight or anything like that. This is how I felt inside the cage. And a part of me feels like he knows this, and that’s the only reason he’s begging for a rematch. Because when you feel like you beat someone, you don’t care to fight them again. Why would you care so much to fight a guy that you sincerely yelled to the whole masses, ‘I beat?’ It just didn’t make any sense to me. So I know what I know, I know what I felt, and it’s going to happen again. It’s sincerely going to happen again. And it has nothing to do with Dustin. It has more to do with my contract issue — that I’m rolling the dice on myself and I’m betting on myself, and it feels lovely.”