Thigao Alves may need one more fight before getting a crack at the Welterweight Title. A recent rumor pits the American Top Team Welterweight against Mike “Quick” Swick before facing the winner of St. Pierre vs Penn.
Mark Chalifoux of the Baltimoresun.com mentioned this probable scenario in his latest blog entry.
What makes this rumor of interest to most fans would be Dana White’s latest proclamation. As recently as last week, the UFC President revealed that Alves’ next fight would be for the title.
“He’s next in line for a title shot. If GSP beats B.J. Penn, then (Alves) fights GSP. If B.J. Penn wins, then he fights B.J.”
After defeating Karo Parisyan, Matt Hughes and Josh Koschek in his last three bouts, fighting Swick would be pointless. Swick would come in with only three Welterweight bouts and a match with the AKA product would be nothing more than a glorified tune up fight.
Super fights like GSP vs Penn 2 can cause situations like this to occur. While fans desire to see a rematch between two of the world’s best fighters, men like Alves and Kenny Florian wind up on the short end of the stick.
“KenFlo” also has to wait for his shot at championship gold due to the UFC 94 main event. Despite compiling a total of thirteen straight wins between the two of them, Florian and Alves may not recieve their shots until the end of Spring.
-Matt De La Rosa