North Catholic to MSG: Eddie Alvarez ready for McGregor at UFC 205
The biggest night of Eddie Alvarez's career - Saturday's showdown with Conor McGregor at UFC 205 - might never have happened had a high school wrestling coach not threatened to break his legs.
Alvarez, who grew up in Kensington, attended North Catholic with plans to play basketball. And then he heard from Bill Hunter.
"He said he would break my legs if I played basketball and didn't wrestle," Alvarez said. "He said I was too short to play basketball and our basketball team stinks. He had a point. He was only being honest."
That began Alvarez's wrestling career, which he parlayed into a career in mixed martial arts. It reaches its apex on Saturday night at Madison Square Garden in the main event of what UFC is calling its biggest card ever. It is the brightest stage for a Philadelphia fighter - MMA or boxing - in more than a decade.
McGregor (20-3) is the biggest draw in UFC history. The 28-year-old Irishman is one of the world's most popular athletes thanks to a personality that is a promoter's dream. The UFC said that Saturday's fight has set the gate record - for any sport - at Madison Square Garden and is expected to be the company's highest-grossing pay-per-view. Alvarez (28-4) will walk to the cage as the lightweight champion, but he will also be the underdog.
"Our time is here," said Alvarez, 32. "I started this fight career with one objective. When I step inside a ring or an octagon, it is to beat the guy in front of me. It's still the same goal every day. Regardless of the magnitude, the crowd, or the pay-per-view sales, the goal is to beat the guy in front of me. He's just another guy to beat."
Alvarez met Hunter when he joined North Catholic's youth wrestling program, which served as an outlet for kids in Kensington. Hunter balanced coaching wrestling with his career as a Philadelphia police officer in Alvarez's tough neighborhood. Hunter said he saw a "stud athlete" who "was an absolute joy to be around." The coach was not ready to let that kid slip away.
"The exact wording was that he wouldn't be able to play basketball with broken legs," Hunter said. "He kind of looked at me funny and read between the lines. I was just joking. It was just a funny thing to say."
Alvarez listened, kept his legs intact, and wrestled at North Catholic for Hunter and fellow coach Jim Savage. Alvarez was an all-Catholic League wrestler and helped the Falcons win three league titles. The school was a wrestling powerhouse before closing in 2010, dominating teams at its feared gymnasium, affectionately known as The Pit. It was there that Alvarez made his name, wrestling at the Madison Square Garden of the Catholic League.
"Nothing can match the energy that we used to have at The Pit," Hunter said. "We used to pack The Pit. And for the kids there, wrestling was something that they were better at than everybody else, no matter where they came from.
"For an opposing team, it was the most intimidating place. So many coaches and wrestlers that I run into say, 'I hated wrestling there. I was so afraid.' Our kids loved it."
Alvarez had scholarship offers to wrestle in college, but the idea of cutting weight for four more years was too much. He discovered mixed martial arts and navigated the sport's smaller circuits for more than a decade before finally landing in the UFC in 2014. Alvarez won the UFC lightweight title in August. Saturday night is his first defense.
The champion lives in a rowhome in the Morrell Park section of Northeast Philly, walks his kids to school each morning, and is married to his high school girlfriend. Alvarez is the neighbor next door who happens to be a world champion, a starking contrast to his opponent on Saturday night.
McGregor drove around New York City this week in a custom Bentley and brags about his extravagant lifestyle. The Irishman - the undisputed champion of trash talk - told Alvarez that he will knock him out in the first round. Alvarez laughed. After all, he has been threatened before.
"I'm not here if Bill Hunter never forced my hand in wrestling," Alvarez said. "It was a pivotal point in my life. From wrestling, I learned that I was capable of much more than I thought I was. North Catholic wrestling is what shaped me and molded me into the competitor that I am today."