It was the most-hyped title fight in UFC history and Eddie Alvarez says he let the occasion get the best of him.

Back in November 2016 in the main event of the first-ever UFC event to take place in New York’s famed Madison Square Garden, Conor McGregor — then the UFC’s featherweight champion — challenged the 155-pound titleholder Alvarez in a bid to become the first fighter in organisational history to hold belts in two weight categories simultaneously.

Alvarez, in the lead-up at least, cut a confident figure — telling the media following a pre-fight staredown with McGregor that he had never felt “less threatened” in his career by an opponent.

But by the time that the two champions squared off in the cage in front of an expectant audience in the Big Apple (including the likes of Madonna and Odell Beckham Jr.), it quickly became clear that it would be McGregor’s night.

Early in the first, McGregor connected with two consecutive left hands that rolled Alvarez’s eyes back and collapsed him to the canvas. The Philly native, though, is made of stern stuff and quickly rose to his feet but would return there on a couple more occasion before the first five minutes had elapsed.

The American seemed a beat behind McGregor throughout and was eventually finished before the end of the second after McGregor landed another multi-punch combination which persuaded referee John McCarthy to stop the fight, and confirm the Irishman in the all-time history books.

And looking back on the fight more than eight years later, the occasions still haunts Alvarez.

“There’s been one time and everybody knows the Conor fight where I went into somewhat near my hometown and I didn’t show up,” Alvarez said in a recent interview with MMA Fighting.

“That was probably the one time that really shocked even myself. Because throughout my entire career, home or anywhere nearby, whenever that spotlight’s on me and whenever the stakes are big, that’s when I show up big.”

“I’ll be able to make it up to my Philadelphia fans,” he continued. “Look, I got my shot at Madison Square Garden. I hated the way I performed. I hated everything about it. But there’s only stadium better than Madison Square Garden and that’s the Well Fargo in Philadelphia.

“I fought all over the world, Russia, Japan, Tokyo, Costa Rica, all over and during these moments I may have had a hiccup or something like that but in my hometown, Atlantic City, Philadelphia, New York, all these places, I usually show up big.”

Alvarez returns to the BKFC ring on January 25 in Philadelphia’s Wells Fargo Arena where he will headline KnuckleMania V against fellow former UFC fighter Jeremy Stephens.