On Saturday January 28, 2017 the UFC heads to the Pepsi Center in Denver, Colorado for UFC on Fox 23. The featured preliminary fight will be a pivotal middleweight bout between Sam “Smile’n” Alvey (29-8) and Nate “The Great” Marquardt (35-16-2). Alvey comes into the bout on a 3-fight win streak and is facing arguably the toughest test in his career in former UFC middleweight title challenger and former Strikeforce Welterweight champion Nate Marquardt. Alvey was kind enough to sit down with us to discuss his upcoming fight.

How is your training camp coming along? The fight will take place in Denver, Colorado at high altitude, did you do any special preparation for the fight conditions?

“Training is going wonderfully; I’ve had some great training partners and a lot of coaching going into this fight. My last fight was in Mexico City about 1000 feet higher than Denver and I didn’t feel the altitude affect me that much. I’ve just made an effort to spend lots of extra time on my conditioning for this camp.”

The fight will take place in Nate Marquardt’s hometown; do you think the home field advantage for him? How do prepare mentally going into another fighter’s hometown knowing he may have strong crowd support?

“Going to somebody’s hometown is fairly easy for me. I’ve spent most of my UFC career traveling to other people’s hometown and I’ve been doing pretty well so far. I suspect the crowd will be very similar as everywhere else they’ll be quiet for me on my walk to the Cage and cheer for me on my walk out. “

What’s your take on everything Nate has accomplished in his MMA career? Nate has fought for the UFC middleweight title and even has a win over the current welterweight champion Tyron Woodley, how excited are you to be facing a guy with such an impressive resume? 

“Nate Marquardt is one of those legends in the sport that are very few and far between. He’s been fighting for a decade longer than I have and he’s accomplished almost everything every MMA fighter wishes they could. I could not be more excited about this opportunity.” 

You are currently on a 3 fight win streak and have great momentum coming into this fight. How impactful would a win over Nate mean for your raking in the middleweight division?

“A win over Nate Marquardt would easily be my biggest win to date. It would put me on a four fight win streak and really help launch me into that mainstream of in the UFC.”

With a win over Nate do you see yourself ranked in the top 15 in the middleweight division?

“I really don’t know if I will become a ranked fighter with this win. It’s never been that important to me, I’ll get there when I get there until then I just want to make all the MMA fans in the world love watching me fight.”

Between you and Nate Marquardt you have 29 KO/TKO wins; do you anticipate this being a stand up fight? 

“I hope it’s a standup fight that’s what the fans like watching. Both of us are pretty experienced grapplers as well though so it wouldn’t surprise me if we tried to get it to the ground once or twice as well.”

This fight marks your fourth fight in a time frame of about six months. What is your secret to staying healthy and active?

“My big secret is to just ignore the injuries. If I hurt something I will use something else. That has always been my philosophy with fighting.”

How do you see the fight playing out and what can fans anticipate from Sam Alvey on Saturday January 28th, 2017?

“I see this fight being a fight of the night kind of fight. I think everybody is going to be on their feet by the end of our fight and I see myself getting my hand raised.”