It seems that Thiago Alves’ upset victory over Karo “The Heat” Parisyan at UFC Fight Night 13 was enough to catapult him right into the upper echelon rankings in the UFC’s welterweight division:

“American Top Team’s Thiago “Pitbull” Alves (14-3 MMA, 7-2 UFC) is now directly behind No. 1 contender Jon Fitch (17-2 MMA, 8-0 UFC) for a shot at the title.

“Right now I heard I’m right behind Jon Fitch,” Alves said. “That’s what Joe Silva told me.”

Alves was informed of his positioning by UFC matchmaker Joe Silva immediately following the 24-year-old Brazilian’s TKO victory over Karo Parisyan (18-5 MMA, 8-3 UFC) at Ultimate Fight Night 13….

During the interview Alves reflected on the bout with Parisyan and claims that Karo has since come to terms with the referee’s decision that night:

“I was feeling great,” Alves said. “In the beginning, I always start slow. I don’t start 100 percent. I start to pick up the pace while the fight is going.”

“I was feeling him out a little bit because he’s a big name,” Alves said. “He’s the biggest name I’ve fought. When I got to the USA, I saw him crushing people in the UFC, so I had a little mental thing. I said ‘Let me feel him out, let me see what he’s got. Let me see how strong he is and everything.’

“And after the first round, when I went back to my corner, in my corner is Jorge Santiago, and he says ‘You see everything? You saw it? That’s it. Now go fight him. Go kick his ass.’ And in the second round we went and just took over the fight.”

“You can look at the replay,” Alves said. “Even I looked at it after the fight. He was out. He fell. He had no reaction at all. I kept punching and punching, and sometimes when you’re out, when you get punched again you wake up. You don’t know what just happened.

“That was [Parisyan's] concern. He thought that nothing happened. ‘Why’d you stop the fight?’ you know? When he saw the replay, even (Parisyan’s coach Randy) Couture was like, ‘You got knocked out.’ After a while, [Parisyan] texted my coach and apologized and everything. Karo’s a great guy.”

Alves further stated that while he could abstain from competition for a period and wait for a potential title shot, we will probably see him back in the octagon some time around June or July.

Tags: Thiago Alves