Eddie Alvarez and Jeremy Stephens trade shots in fiery face-off: "You've never been a champion"
Former UFC lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez will face Jeremy Stephens in gloveless combat in Q1 of 2025—however, things heat up at today's press conference. Alvarez versus Stephens is set to top the marquee of BKFC KnuckleMania V which transpires on Jan. 25. The action emanates from the Wells Fargo Center and who better for the promotion's long-awaited Philadelphia debut than the pride of the city, Alvarez?
While this monumental card goes down in a few weeks, the launch press conference kicked off today from the 2300 Arena, which many pro wrestling fans still affectionately call the ECW Arena. During the press event, both Alvarez and Stephens traded verbal jabs, but the rivalry heated up when they engaged in face-offs to end the event.
During the heated exchange of words that saw Alvarez's comments interspersed between the bantering of Stephens, Eddie Alvarez said:
"Nice mohawk, you're 40. Relax, man. You're in the wrong f***ing spot [laughs]. I promise you, you choke. I f***ing promise you. You lost way too much to be coming here. You lost way too much. You ain't never beating no champion. You've never been a champion. You'll never beat a f***ing champion ever."
Check out the heated faceoff between Alvarez and Stephens below
Eddie Alvarez's instances of being a champion
The barbs from Eddie Alvarez toward Jeremy Stephens come from having been a champion with multiple organizations. Alvarez has been collecting titles for over two decades, with his first professional MMA title being captured in October 2004.
This came against Chris Schlesinger with Alvarez earning a win within one minute to earn the Reality Fighting welterweight title. The 40-year-old earned another belt, and it only took him sixty-five seconds that time out. Alvarez knocked out Aaron Riley to become the MFC welterweight champion, which was later changed to the BodogFIGHT welterweight belt.
The Philadelphia native would then earn hardware at 155 pounds as he captured Bellator gold multiple times over including being their inaugural lightweight champion. Alvarez earned this distinction against Toby Imada at Bellator 12. He also regained the BMMA lightweight gold from the man he lost it to when Alvarez tied up his series with ufc-309-co-main-event-an-audience" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-is-sponsored="false">Michael Chandler in their Bellator 106 rematch.
Eddie Alvarez would then journey over to the octagon, where he would become the UFC lightweight champion. 'The Underground King' would TKO Rafael Dos Anjos in the opening round of their July 2016 UFC Fight Night main event.