Eddie Alvarez fires back at Khabib Nurmagomedov

Since Eddie Alvarez knocked out Rafael dos Anjos earlier this month to win the UFC lightweight championship, the MMA veteran has had a target on his back.

While Alvarez would like to fight the winner of UFC 202’s Nate Diaz vs. Conor McGregor fight, #1 ranked lightweight Khabib Nurmagomedov has his eyes set on a title shot.

That doesn’t sit too well with Alvarez, who spoke on The Countdown:

“Rankings are subjective anyway. For someone to say, ‘This guy’s number one,’ who claims him to be number one and why is he number one? That’s a question we’ve got to ask ourselves. It’s subjective. So to say, ‘The guy is number one, he should get the title shot,’ it’s not necessarily so.

“Look at the case between Tony Ferguson and Khabib. Tony Ferguson is 8-0, he’s been active for the last God-knows-how-what, he’s been finishing opponents, been on a tear; Khabib’s fought once in three years and he’s number one and he decides he wants a title shot? The last guy he beat was virtually un-ranked – maybe top 100 in the world – and he’s the number one guy in the world. So who says that? Who makes that up? Who appoints him number one? That being said, make the fights that make sense. Make the fights the fans want to see. Who gives a shit about the rankings?”

Alvarez is referencing Nurmagomdov’s string of injuries which saw the undefeated fighter sidelined from 2014 to 2016, before returning to the Octagon this April and defeating Darrel Horcher via TKO.