LAS VEGAS, June 10 -- The last man Conor McGregor knocked out cold wants the world to know something: the fighter who did that to him probably does not exist anymore.

Eddie Alvarez, stopped in the second round at Madison Square Garden in November 2016 as McGregor became the UFC's first simultaneous two-division champion, told the Full Send MMA podcast this week that the Irishman's five-year layoff is simply too steep a mountain. McGregor faces Max Holloway in the main event of UFC 329 on July 11 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, and from where Alvarez sits, that is a problem no amount of obsession can fully solve.

"The universal law of fighting is, you can't put it down and pick it up whenever you want," Alvarez said. "You're either in th...