"Pitbull" Unleashed: Thiago Alves Promises That He's Back, and I'll Hold Him to That Promise

What an interesting year it’s been for the top-ranked and resurgent Thiago Alves. Alves entered 2010 coming off of undoubtedly the biggest loss of his career, a five-round all-out thrashing courtesy of Georges St. Pierre that happened at UFC 100. After a long, sordid history of postponements, Alves finally fought rival Jon Fitch in August in the rematch that seemingly refused to be made. Not only would Alves lose convincingly once again, he would come in overweight by almost two pounds. However, “The Pitbull” seemed to make a triumphant return at the recent UFC 124 event, as Alves practically mauled John Howard and made it look easy. In a new interview Alves officially put the Welterweight division on notice… but isn’t he getting ahead of himself?

Here are the highlights from an interview Alves recently had with MMA Weekly: “…I want to be back by the beginning of April. My next fight I want it to be in UFC Rio on August 27 so if they schedule that, I’ll (fight) beginning of April and then August 27… I just want to fight whoever’s going to bring me closer to the belt again. It doesn’t matter who it is… I want to be the welterweight champion. Whoever’s going to bring me closer, I’m ready for it… Welterweight division, watch out, I’m back.”

Now, I have no problem admitting that Thiago Alves did put on a classic performance against John Howard at “St. Pierre vs. Koscheck 2”. He came in on weight, in top shape, fought like a monster, and decimated his opponent. So while I do think I’m raining on Thiago’s parade (not without reason, of course), I don’t want to take anything away from the fact that Alves took a giant leap down the comeback trail when he beat John Howard. But one good fight does not a triumphant return make.

If Thiago Alves wants me to start taking him seriously again as a major threat in the UFC’s Welterweight division, he needs to continue to do what he did to John Howard, he needs to permanently bring back the Thiago Alves that reacted to his opponent’s gameplan with utter disdain and then pounded their face in or reduced their legs to jelly. If that Thiago Alves is brought back and brought back consistently, I’ll be the first one to hop the next trampoline and jump back onto the Thiago Alves bandwagon.

But it’s going to take more than one good performance for me to forget how utterly out of his league Alves looked against Georges St. Pierre and Jon Fitch. In particular, the memories of Alves looking like a shell of his former himself against Fitch will remain in my head for quite some time until I’m convinced to sweep them under the rug. But the potential certainly is there. Thiago Alves stands to have an amazing 2011 if he lives up to all of his promises. But anything is possible in MMA. I know most fans, including myself, use that term when talking about seemingly-unbeatable champions. But make no mistake, the reverse is also true. Thiago Alves could be back and better than ever in 2011… but he could also take a wrong step on the comeback trail and end up falling down a chasm.

And what do you think, fans and friends? Like me, are you hesitant to fully believe Alves’ promise that he’s “back”? Or do you think that his admittedly great performance at UFC 124 is enough to justify what he said in this recent interview?