Currently on a three-fight win streak and having fought four times since last June, UFC middleweight Sam Alvey continues to chase the ‘most fights in one year’ at UFC on Fox 23 when he faces UFC veteran Nate Marquardt.
Ahead of his bout at the The Pepsi Center in Denver, Colorado, “Smilin” Sam revealed to MMA Plus that he has no intention of slowing down his schedule and wants to fit in another four or five fights before the end of the year on his way to smashing the record of five, shared by Neil Magny, Donald Cerrone and Roger Huerta, which he will tie on Saturday night.
“I just want to set the record,” started Alvey. “Most fights in one year is a record I’d just love. This is my fifth fight in six or so months and I plan on fighting just as much and getting another four or maybe five fights in before the end of June or July.”
Even with the record in sight, Alvey is nothing but focused on his opponent this weekend, Marquardt, and has nothing but admiration for the long-serving fighter who makes it 54 professional fights when he walks to the cage in his home state of Colorado.
“There are few people who have more fights than me and he’s one of them,” admitted Alvey. “I feel humbled by this opportunity to fight such a champion. He’s been a black belt Jiu-Jitsu longer than I’ve been fighting I think!! He’s an incredible athlete and he was my coach on The Ultimate Fighter [Season 16] so I have a little bit more respect for him because of that and I really am very honoured to step in the cage with him.”
With both men’s backgrounds in the sport leading from Pankration, Alvey thinks the grappling history of the two may come into play despite both being known more recently for their exploits on the feet.
“We’re going to use every bit of experience we have to try and beat one another. I think he’s a guy that hits hard and is willing to box but also has that fantastic grappling background so you can never be sure where he’s going to go. It’s my job just to be ready for it all,” said Alvey.
Despite his reputation for finding the knockout, the 30-year-old struggled in his previous fight with Alex Nicholson at UFC Fight Night 98 in Mexico City but would perform well enough to come away with the unanimous decision. Feeling physically different throughout the fight, Alvey points to altitude being a major factor and that time but has prepared much better for the environment he faces in the “Mile-High” city.
“I didn’t have a whole lot of time to prepare so I couldn’t make any of the adjustments for the altitude in Mexico City. My lungs felt okay but my body slowly tired so I wanted to make sure it didn’t happen in this fight,” Alvey said on his fight with Nicholson. “I threw harder, bit down and thought I got to win it. I wasn’t hitting as hard as I normally do and that never really corrected itself.”
Commenting on the adjustments he’s made, the middleweight revealed, “About eight or ten weeks ago I bought an altitude tent.
“I’ve been sleeping at about 9500ft just to help with everything so I’m actually now fighting lower than I’ve been sleeping. So I got out here to make sure my body worked the way I wanted it to and so far I’ve been doing really well.”
Training over at Team Quest and now the DH Fitness Centre with retired legend Dan Henderson, Alvey was keen to stress the important role the former Pride and UFC fighter still plays in the day-to-day operations around his own camp.
“I’ve had a great training camp. I’ve had a lot of training partners, like Keith Berry who fought at Bellator recently, Tom Strickland, he’s going to be fighting pretty soon and of course, Dan Henderson’s always there, so I’ve had a lot of good training partners,” expressed Alvey.
“Dan’s a superstar. He’s actually going to be in my corner for this fight and he’s just better than everyone at everything. He’s a very humbling coach.”
With the next fight never too far in the future for “Smilin” Sam, he admitted to having already set his sights on fighting in Europe soon and although the card has now all but filled up, Alvey would have loved to have found his way onto the UFC London card on March 18 and still may find his way onto a European card relatively soon.
“I want to fight over in Europe, I’ve been trying to and I would love to fight in London,” expressed Alvey. “The fight doesn’t make sense on paper but people keep saying there’s a fighter called Jack Marshman out there. I’ve seen him fight and he’s a great fighter so that would be a good fight or Krzysztof Jotko, he’s from over there and there’s also Magnus Cedenblad who’s a fantastic fighter.
“Any Middleweight in Europe, I want to step in the cage for, and I said it in my last fight or two fights ago, if there’s a 205lber in Europe willing to go then I think I’d probably be willing to do that too.”
