Joel Alvarez to work with UFC Performance Institute to address weight misses: 'It's not going to happen again'

Joel Alvarez knows there’s one thing he needs to take care of before moving forward with his promising career.

The rising UFC lightweight contender is coming off four straight impressive stoppage wins, but he’s been having issues making the 156-pound non-title limit for his weight class.

Alvarez (19-2 MMA, 4-1 UFC) picked up a first-round stoppage over veteran Thiago Moises at UFC Fight Night 197, but weighed in at 157.5 pounds. The Spanish fighter was surprised he wasn’t able to make the lightweight limit because he thought everything in his weight cut was going well.

“The day of weigh-ins, I woke up at 158 pounds and I felt good,” Alvarez told MMA Junkie in Spanish. “I was good. I wasn’t very tired or anything like that, so let’s go cut the remaining two pounds – it’s nothing.

“I began running, I did the sauna, the bath, and I was only able to lose half a pound. I was like, ‘F*ck.’ My body just wasn’t sweating. I could’t cut the two remaining pounds. I was like, ‘Man, what’s going on here?’ I don’t know why, but it just wasn’t coming off.

“And it’s not like I can’t make the weight. I didn’t even rebound that much, maybe the night of the fight, I was at 175 pounds at most. So I don’t know what happened.”

This is the second time Alvarez missed weight since joining the UFC in 2019. For his previous bout against Alexander Yakovlev, which he won by first-round submission, Alvarez had weighed in at 159.5 pounds.

Alvarez said UFC matchmaker Sean Shelby spoke to him after UFC Fight Night 197 and said the weight issues need to stop.

“Sean Shelby spoke to me and said that this can’t be happening – failing to make weight twice on the scale,” Alvarez said. “He said this can’t be happening, and that at 156 I looked like a f*cking monster.”

Alvarez sees no future at welterweight and is not considering a move to 170 pounds since he’s in the range of what other lightweights walk around to make 155.

“I had been under 170 pounds for two weeks before the fight, so welterweight would be a crazy move,” Alvarez said. “It would be crazy because I would barely rebound in weight. I don’t know what happened that day that I was only able to cut half a pound from the remaining two. I know it’s very unprofessional, but my body said no more. We’re going to have a more professional approach now and I’m sure it’s not going to happen again. I’m telling you, I can make the weight well.”

Moving forward, Alvarez plans to work with the UFC Performance Institute in Las Vegas to see where he can improve in nutrition and weight cutting. Alvarez already has started preliminary talks and he plans to travel to Las Vegas in January and stay there for three weeks so the experts can analyze him.

“Now I’m in the hands of the nutritionists of the UFC Performance Institute, and let them take care of that area,” he said. “But again, I’m prime to fight at 155 pounds. It’s not like I missed by 10 pounds or six. It was just a pound and a half.

“It’s just a matter of polishing that small detail and I’ll continue to do damage at 155 pounds.”