UFC QUOTABLES: Thiago Alves - "Welterweight division: watch out, I'm back"

By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

"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... This will be like a dream come true, I can't even express myself. Being Brazilian, you kind of grew up with MMA developing and all that, and now that we're going to have a UFC in Brazil after this whole time, it's pretty cool. That's why I want to fight there so badly. I'm sure everyone who is Brazilian is going to want to fight on this card... I just want to fight whoever's going to bring me closer to the belt again. It doesn't matter who it is. Nothing changed as far as my goals, I want to be the welterweight champion. Whoever's going to bring me closer, I'm ready for it. It doesn't matter who it is, I'll be ready for it. Welterweight division, watch out, I'm back."

-Thiago Alves talks to MMAWeekly.com about wanting to get back into action early into 2011 as well as on the UFC's Brazil return in August.

Penick's Analysis: His performance against John Howard at UFC 124 was fantastic, and may have been the best we've seen him look in the Octagon. He didn't have any issues with the weight cut after a change in his diet, and looked every bit the dangerous challenge he was believed to be before his losses to Georges St. Pierre and Jon Fitch. If he can continue to keep his weight down to make 170 consistently, I'm of the firm belief that Thiago Alves will be the UFC's Welterweight Champion by 2012. Of course, a caveat to that is that GSP will have moved on to the middleweight division by then, as I still don't see anyone in the welterweight division defeating him.

Source: http://www.mmatorch.com/artman2/publish/UFC_2/article_7894.shtml

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