Kamaru Usman Reaches Out To Eddie Alvarez After Debut Loss In One Championship

Eddie Alvarez made his much anticipated debut on Sunday for One Championship as he faced off against Timofey Nastyukhin as part of the One Lightweight Grand Prix quarterfinal round.

Nastyukhin shocked the crowd by stopping Alvarez in the opening round to progress to the next stage of the tournament while the heavy favourite Alvarez ponders his next step.

Newly-crowned Ultimate Fighting Championship welterweight champion Kamaru Usman, a longtime teammate of Alvarez at Hard Knocks 365, reached out to the former UFC lightweight champion through Twitter to offer his support.

Classic @Ealvarezfight go to a new promotion take an L and then rip thru the entire division and run away with the belt #MinorSetbackforaMajorComeback

— KAMARU USMAN (@USMAN84kg) March 31, 2019

“Classic [Eddie Alvarez], go to a new promotion take an L and then rip thru the entire division and run away with the belt. [Minor setback for a major comeback].”

Usman may be referring to Alvarez’s run in the UFC, where he lost his debut fight against Donald Cerrone at UFC 178 before beating the likes of Gilbert Melendez, Anthony Pettis and Rafael dos Anjos to capture the 155-pound belt.

The 35-year-old Alvarez has now lost two fights in a row, against Dustin Poirier in his last fight for the UFC and now Nastyukhin.