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Former Bellator MMA and UFC lightweight champion, Eddie Alvarez, was in tears after the referee disqualified him from his match against Iuri Lapicus at ONE on TNT.

Alvarez was fighting his first match since August 2019 and was all charged up for the fight. He started the match positively and was in a dominant position. ‘The Underground King’ was pouring a barrage of punches over the 25-year-old and took him down.

Lapicus tried taking his head away, but Alvarez continued his assault. Subsequently, Lapicus fell back holding his head and the referee, Justin Brown, deemed those punches to be hitting at the back of the head. Hence, he disqualified the American MMA fighter.

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Following the fight, the former UFC champion argued that he directed his punches towards his opponent’s ear. Furthermore, he claimed that if the punches were to the back of the head, the referee should have made both the fighters return to a vertical base.

However, the decision left him distraught, and the promotion shared a video of his reaction backstage. Alvarez, who was walking, suddenly stopped and started crying at a barricade as an official tried to get him to gather himself.

Knowing ‘The Underground King’ he will want to secure a rematch against Lapicus. He will look to remove the stain of illegal shots that has left a mark on his resume.

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What lies ahead for Eddie Alvarez at ONE Championship?

After he lost to Dustin Poirier in UFC, Alvarez joined ONE Championship in 2019. His maiden fight was a loss to Timofey Nastyukhin. But ‘The Underground King’ beat Eduard Folayang via submission to secure his first win in Asia.

He will be keen on winning a championship in a third promotion. But the setback combined with a shark tank of young and hungry fighters at ONE will have made things trickier for the former UFC champion.

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Lapicus may look to move ahead, but he knows that a clean win over Alvarez would do wonders for his career. Do you see the powers that be at ONE Championship booking this lightweight rematch?

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