Despite his near-permanent smile, Sam Alvey is still fuming after his fight against Jim Crute, which he feels ref Marc Goddard stopped early.
Smilin’ Sam Alvey is always a popular figure, no matter what weight class he’s fighting in. A longtime middleweight, Alvey (33–12 (1)) has been plying his trade at light heavyweight of late. Since joining the weight class early in 2018, he’s gone 2-2 at 205lbs.
We caught up with Alvey ahead of this weekend’s UFC Philadelphia, tackling a number of topics – including the recently announced title fight between Jon Jones and Thiago Santos at UFC 239.
Is that the fight to make? “Maybe. I know Santos is riding the hype train right now,” Alvey told Cageside Press. That said, “Corey Anderson I think probably should be closer to the title than him.”
But if he’s being honest, the man with the best smile in MMA says that “I’m more excited for the Santos fight.” Alvey added that it’s “twice now” that Anderson has been overlooked. “I don’t think Smith had any reason to be there, other than he was on a tear at light heavyweight.” But Alvey pointed out that Smith didn’t have the ranking next to his name.
As for when Alvey himself might get back in the octagon, he joked that “I’m going to wait until I don’t wake up still pissed off about that last fight.” The last fight was a TKO loss to Jim Crute at UFC 234, a stoppage Alvey, normally a cool customer, was irate over.
“I was furious. I went back stage and cussed some more. I was a big baby about it backstage.” Though, “not nearly as good as Robbie Lawler was after Herb Dean stopped his prematurely.”
“But in my defense it was my second damn fight in a row that he stopped prematurely.” He, of course, would be referee Marc Goddard, a no-nonsense sort who has come under fire of late. Including in an exchange of fire with easygoing UFC play-by-play man Jon Anik. Which served as an interesting look behind the curtain.
“I don’t know, he might be a great guy, I don’t know. He’s hurt my career twice,” Alvey said. The other occurrence came against Little Nog, in his previous bout. “I can’t blame it on him, I was in a bad spot twice.” But Alvey does insist that in the Crute fight, he was fine. In fact, he spoke to Goddard backstage before the bout and asked what he had to do. “I can take a beating. I like that kind of fight,” Alvey recalls telling Goddard. “You just put that thumbs up and you’ll be good,” Goddard replied. Yet twenty or so minutes later in the cage, Alvey, with his thumb up, had his fight stopped.
And he’s still upset months later. “He hit me with the one great punch, beautiful punch, caught me when I wasn’t expecting it. I dropped, popped right back up,” Alvey allowed as far as Crute is concerned. But “there wasn’t a flash knockout, there was nothing. I was in a bad spot, but it’s fighting, you’re always in kind a bad spot.”
Watch our full interview with Smilin’ Sam Alvey above, as he previews some of the action from this weekend’s Bellator 219 and UFC Philadelphia cards!
