Before his recent withdrawal from a rematch with Jon Fitch due to a small tear to the posterior cruciate ligament in his knee, Thiago Alves sat down with Sherdog.com and reflected on his title bout loss to Georges St. Pierre.

St. Pierre had trumpeted Alves as his most dangerous opponent to date. In the end GSP claimed a dominant unanimous decision, and Alves couldn’t help but feel he had given the champion too much respect.

“When you fight a guy like Georges St. Pierre, you have to think that he is good,” Alves said. “He’s the best fighter out there, in my opinion, but before the fight you have this respect because you don’t know what to expect until you are in there. Then, once he gets going, it is hard to catch up to him.”

St. Pierre ran out to a big lead against Alves and, despite suffering a groin injury late in the fight, he was able to shut down the explosive American Top Team product. Regardless of the outcome, though, Alves is confident the experience he gained in his 25 minutes with the champ will pay off should he get another crack at him.

“That’s why everyone who fights him says, ‘Now I know what it takes to beat him.’ I have seen what it takes,” Alves said. “I saw all the ghosts that appear when you fight for a title. People can say a lot of things to you like, ‘Don’t worry, you’re going to be fine,’ but when you step in there, you see it’s a whole different ballgame because you are fighting against the champion and you’re trying to take his belt away. You know he isn’t going to just give it to you. He’s the best fighter in the world and he has been there so many times.”

Although Alves feels he might have given St. Pierre too much credit before the bout, he left the cage respecting the UFC welterweight titleholder even more.

“It made me gain so much more respect for him. He’s such a great champion, he’s such a great fighter that I want to beat him. I want to be better than him,” Alves said. “That’s what I want, to be like Georges St. Pierre but better. You always have to look up to the best, and he is the best in my weight division, so I want to be like him but better.”

Asked if he wanted to rematch St. Pierre right away, Alves smiled and nodded: “I would fight him again yesterday.”