This fight. Oh man… This fight. I can not wait. For this fight!! Remember when I said the best fights typically involve the best fighters? Well, this is one of those fights.

The most competitive fight Islam Makhachev has been in recently, was against Arman Tsarukyan. Arman put up a great fight in his UFC debut against who many believe to be the uncrowned best in the world at 155. And Arman reminds me a lot of Islam. A really strong and relentless grappler, who also has some solid striking. Arman is absolutely a guy who could make his way to the title. That loss to Islam does not mean he can’t get it back, he was only 22 at the time! (Don’t forget, Islam lost his second UFC fight) Arman has since won 4 straight and it looks like the only people who will be able to beat him are the Islam Makhachevs of the world.

Which brings us to his opponent, Joel Alvarez. Joel looks like he might be an absolute monster. And I mean that quite literally. He is a 6’2 lightweight! One of the biggest questions coming into this fight is if he can even make weight. But if he can be a healthy 155’er. Oh boy. Look out. We may have something on our hands here.

Joel Alvarez also lost his UFC debut to one of the best in the world, Damir Ismagulov (if you don’t know who he is now, you will soon). But he has also won 4 straight in the UFC since his debut loss! Alvarez has 19 pro wins – and all 19 wins have come via finish! He has 16 wins by submission, and 3 by KO. But what is most interesting to me, is how rapidly Joel Alvarez seems to be improving. He has looked progressively better after each UFC win, but he had a big step up in competition in his last outing against top ranked contender Thiago Moises. Joel went into that fight as +210 underdog, but he absolutely steamrolled Moises. Overwhelmed him and hammered him with elbows until the ref had to step in and save his damn life. It was a mauling, and Moises was just coming off a main event spot against Islam! And Joel made him look like he didn’t even belong in the same organization! Islam didn’t do that to Thiago Moises..

Was that last performance just a beneficial style matchup? Or was it just straight up unfair, Joel did miss the 156 pound limit by 1.5 pounds. Or maybe it was a true breakout performance from one the sports best prospects.

Before we get too excited about Joel Alvarez, we need to know he can be a healthy lightweight. It’ll be something to watch Friday.

But if we can get a healthy version of these two on Saturday – this is arguably the most compelling fight on the card.   

if you do not know, now you do know