Originally Posted by MMAJunkie

Thiago Alves gets title shot after Jon Fitch


To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 20 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.


After earning his fifth straight victory in the UFC's welterweight division, American Top Team's Thiago "Pitbull" Alves (14-3 MMA, 7-2 UFC) is now directly behind No. 1 contender Jon Fitch (17-2 MMA, 8-0 UFC) for a shot at the title.

Alves was informed of his positioning by UFC matchmaker Joe Silva immediately following the 24-year-old Brazilian's TKO victory over Karo Parisyan (18-5 MMA, 8-3 UFC) at Ultimate Fight Night 13.

Alves discussed his possible title contention, as well as the hotly debated ending of the Parisyan bout, while a guest on Monay's edition of TAGG Radio, a content partner of MMAjunkie.

"Right now I heard I'm right behind Jon Fitch," Alves said. "That's what Joe Silva told me."

With Fitch expected to take on the winner of next weekend's Matt Serra-Georges St. Pierre UFC 83 main event, Alves could potentially sit out briefly and wait on the results of these fights and his pending title shot. Alves, however, would prefer to stay active.

"I know I want to fight," Alves said. "My manager asked me if I want to wait to see what's up, and I said, 'I don't want to wait, I want to fight.' Probably I'll be fighting by June or July."

By most counts, Alves lost the first round of his bout with Parisyan. But Alves contends that was due, at least partially, to his always-patient strategy.

"I was feeling great," Alves said. "In the beginning, I always start slow. I don't start 100 percent. I start to pick up the pace while the fight is going."

That slow start also had much to due with Alves' respect for Parisyan.

"I was feeling him out a little bit because he's a big name," Alves said. "He's the biggest name I've fought. When I got to the USA, I saw him crushing people in the UFC, so I had a little mental thing. I said 'Let me feel him out, let me see what he's got. Let me see how strong he is and everything.'

"And after the first round, when I went back to my corner, in my corner is Jorge Santiago, and he says 'You see everything? You saw it? That's it. Now go fight him. Go kick his ass.' And in the second round we went and just took over the fight."

He needed just 34 seconds to force the stoppage in that round. Alves dropped his opponent with a knee to the head and then followed with a series of unanswered blows. Parisyan immediately protested the stoppage to referee Steve Mazzagatti, and some fans followed with a series of boos. However, Alves said that Parisyan himself has since apologized for doubting the validity of Alves' victory.

"You can look at the replay," Alves said. "Even I looked at it after the fight. He was out. He fell. He had no reaction at all. I kept punching and punching, and sometimes when you're out, when you get punched again you wake up. You don't know what just happened.

"That was [Parisyan's] concern. He thought that nothing happened. 'Why'd you stop the fight?' you know? When he saw the replay, even (Parisyan's coach Randy) Couture was like, 'You got knocked out.' After a while, [Parisyan] texted my coach and apologized and everything. Karo's a great guy."

With a title shot looming in the background, Alves is unsure who his next opponent will be. But regardless of the opponent the UFC chooses, the "Pitbull" can't wait to get back in the octagon.

"We'll see; you never know," Alves said. "I'm down for whatever. I just want to fight."