UFC Fight Night blog: Eddie Alvarez claims lightweight title in first round TKO

By Case Keefer (contact)

Published Thursday, July 7, 2016 | 7 p.m.

Updated Thursday, July 7, 2016 | 9:23 p.m.

Mixed martial arts has its first fighter to ever hold belts in both the UFC and Bellator.

Eddie Alvarez made history Thursday night at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in the first event of this year’s International Fight Week, UFC Fight Night 90, by defeating Rafael dos Anjos to win the lightweight championship belt. Alvarez, the Bellator champion from 2009 to 2011, secured a TKO victory at 3:49 of the first round by landing repeated successful combinations.

“I had to empty the gas tank and let it go,” Alvarez said afterwards while still in the octagon. “That’s the old me. I told you, I’m bringing the dog out of me.”

Alvarez, as high as a 3-to-1 underdog, shed tears as he thanked his family and team after the victory. The 32-year-old Philadelphia native reunited with his old team, including head coach Mark Henry and former lightweight champion Frankie Edgar, to prepare for dos Anjos.

The result was by far his best UFC performance. Alvarez’s only previous victories in the octagon were razor-thin split decisions over Anthony Pettis and Gilbert Melendez.

“Rafael is top five pound-for-pound,” Alvarez said. “We took him out in the first round.”

With much of the arena distracted by the news of Anderson Silva filling in to fight Daniel Cormier at UFC 200, dos Anjos came out strong and won an early exchange. The crowd piped up for the striking battle, and attention was restored in time for everyone to witness Alvarez awaken.

Alvarez fought the way dos Anjos typically does, coming forward with an exhaustive amount of strikes. Dos Anjos couldn’t weather the onslaught.

The main card also started with a lightweight bout that ended in the first round, as Joseph Duffy submitted Mitch Clarke with a rear-naked choke 25 seconds into their fight. Duffy floored Clarke with punches and swarmed him on the ground.

The most action of the night came in the next fight, where Alan Jouban nearly knocked out Belal Muhammad in each of the first two rounds of their welterweight bout before having to survive the third. Jouban won a unanimous decision (29-28, 29-27, 29-27).

The judges went against local heavyweight mainstay Roy Nelson, who lost a fourth fight in his last five appearances by the slimmest of margins. Derrick Lewis won via split decision (29-28, 29-28, 28-29) after hurting Nelson in the stand-up on numerous occasions.

Nelson controlled the majority of the fight with wrestling, but it wasn’t enough.

“I’m a champ and I’m going to keep going,” Lewis said.

He could learn from Alvarez.

Find our live round by round blog of the main card below and full preliminary-card results at the bottom of the page.

One fight is off. The other 35 scheduled for International Fight Week proceed as planned.

The first eight are already completed — full preliminary results are available at the bottom of the page — with four left to go tonight at the MGM Grand Garden Arena as part of UFC Fight Night 90. It was easy to momentarily forget that the UFC’s marathon three straight nights of fights has begun with Jon Jones’ failed drug test and the search for a new opponent for Daniel Cormier controlling the conversation.

Tonight’s main card could prove as a shot to the chin to wake everyone up. The championship for the deepest division in mixed martial arts is up for grabs in the main event.

Eddie Alvarez has a chance to become the first fighter to hold belts in both Bellator and the UFC when he challenges champion Rafael dos Anjos. Alvarez is only two years removed from a drawn-out legal battle between the two biggest promotions in the sport to secure his services.

The UFC won out, and accelerated the Philadelphia native into a title shot. Alvarez lost to Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone in his UFC debut, but has notched back-to-back split decision wins over Gilbert Melendez and Anthony Pettis to get to dos Anjos.

Dos Anjos wrecked Cerrone via first-round knockout to defend his belt last December after winning it off of Pettis. He’s known as one of the top pressure fighters in the world, but Alvarez thrived off of that style in the past.

It may have a high standard to live up to after the co-main event, which promises to be a slugfest. Neither Roy Nelson nor Derrick Lewis are ranked among the top of the heavyweight division, but both have fighting styles as exciting as anyone else on the UFC roster. Interrupt

Oddsmakers make the bout a straight pick’em with a high probability for an early knockout one way or the other.

The opening of the main card features lightweight veterans Mitch Clarke and Joseph Duffy, before welterweights Alan Jouban and Belal Muhammad take the octagon.

Stay tuned to lasvegassun.com for live round-by-round coverage of the main card, and look below for full preliminary results.

• Alberto Mina stayed undefeated by knocking out Mike Pyle via flying-knee knockout at 1:17 of the second round in a welterweight fight.

• John Makdessi edged Mehdi Baghdad by split decision (29-28, 29-28, 28-29) in a back-and-forth war of a lightweight bout.

• Anthony Birchak took a split decision (30-27, 29-28, 28-29) over Dileno Lopes in a bantamweight bout where both fighters nearly finished each other at different moments.

• Pedro Munhoz submitted Russell Doane via guillotine choke at 2:08 of the first round in a bantamweight bout.

• Felipe Arantes defeated Jerrod Sanders with an armbar at 1:39 of the second round in a bantamweight bout.

• Gilbert Burns submitted Lukasz Sajewski with an armbar at 4:57 of the first round in a lightweight bout.

• Marco Beltran defeated Reginaldo Vieira by submission (rear-naked choke) at 3:04 of the second round in a bantamweight bout.

• Vicente Luque submitted Alvaro Herrera via d'arce choke at 3:52 of the second round in a welterweight bout.

Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or [email protected]. Follow Case on Twitter at twitter.com/casekeefer.