One Championship ‘treated Eddie Alvarez better after debut loss than UFC did after title win’

Brandon Vera recalls Alvarez saying he ‘felt like cattle’ in the UFC even after claiming the lightweight belt

Alvarez was shocked by warm welcome at One Championship’s elite athlete retreat in Thailand despite first-round TKO in Tokyo

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Timofey Nastyukhin hits Eddie Alvarez. Photos: One Championship

Published: 6:24pm, 16 Jul 2019Updated: 6:24pm, 16 Jul 2019

Eddie Alvarez felt he was treated better by One Championship after his debut loss than he was by the UFC after winning their lightweight title, according to Brandon Vera.

One’s heavyweight champion, talking to Brendan Schaub, recalled a conversation which he said took place at the Asian MMA organisation’s annual elite retreat earlier this year at a five-star hotel in Thailand.

“After a loss, an athlete really doesn’t want to hang out with anybody. You’re not trying to talk to anybody, not trying to do anything but just go home and sulk for at least 24 hours, 48 hours,” former UFC star Vera said on an episode of Below The Belt with Brendan Schaub.

Alvarez had just suffered a horrible eye injury in a first-round TKO defeat by Russian knockout artist Timofey Nastyukhin at the end of March in Tokyo, in the quarter-finals of One’s lightweight grand prix.

Vera said One’s upper management managed to convince Alvarez to come to the event, where everyone “fell in love with him”.

“As soon as Eddie showed up, all the other athletes started going up to Eddie and saying, ‘Hey man, thank you for coming out here’. For him to show up just showed his heart,” the 41-year-old said.