James Vick: “I would murder Eddie Alvarez, I don’t think that fight would even be close”

Last weekend, on the undercard of UFC 211, dangerous lightweight talent James Vick picked up a gorgeous first-round TKO win over the durable Polo Reyes. With this win, he built on the momentum of a recent D’Arce choke defeat of Abel Trujillo, further separated himself from a loss to Beneil Dariush, and reestablished himself as a definite fighter to watch in the perilous UFC lightweight division.

In the wake of this impressive defeat of Reyes, Vick made a clever callout of Kevin Less and Michael Chiesa, who will fight in the main event of the UFC’s upcoming trip to Oklahoma City. Naturally, Vick would love to fight the winner of this contest, but he also suggested he’d be willing to step into the fight on short notice, should one party get injured.

On the latest episode of BJ Penn Radio, Vick explained the reasoning behind this callout. Apparently, he would have preferred a fight with Eddie Alvarez or Dustin Poirier – two fighters he believes he’d dominate – but believes Chiesa and Lee are more realistic options at this point.

“Well basically, [Chiesa and Lee are] ranked above me,” he said. “It’s a realistic fight that I can get, potentially.”

“I could say I could fight Eddie Alvarez or Dustin Poirier – and in my opinion I would beat the shit out of them as well, I think I’m a stylistically horrible matchup for both of those guys,” he continued. “I know I’m not going to get that fight, but I would murder Eddie Alvarez, I don’t think that fight would even be close. Even if I didn’t finish him, I would win handily over three rounds. I would beat him easily. But I don’t think I’m going to get that fight, so I have to keep building my wins. It’s about getting your name out there.

“I think that, where they’re seated, with Kevin Lee being number 11 or number 12 [in the rankings], and Chiesa being number seven or eight, that’s a realistic matchup I could get. Oklahoma City is only three hours from where I live here in Texas, so yeah, I’d take that fight in a heartbeat. And I’m healthy, I took no damage. I could turn around and fight in a month, it’d be no problem. “

How do you think James Vick would fare against the dangerous lightweight contenders mentioned above?

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 5/18/2017.