MMA News Forums » MMA Forums » General MMA Forum

[Sakara=Excitement]

Eddie Alvarez Losing His Cool Over UFC / Bellatory Negotations | MMA NEWS MMA News | Mixed Martial Arts | UFC News | BJPenn | MMA Fight | UFC Fights

If you haven’t been following along, top free agent, Eddie Alvarez is in contract limbo waiting to make the move to the UFC.

The Bellator organization is doing what they can to halt that move.

Little is known about what is going on behind the scenes, but reports have been that Bellator matched a UFC bid which could keep the lightweight star under the promotional banner he wants to leave.

Here is what Eddie recently stated via his official twitter account.

[Y2JUBAE]

I'm sure he will end up in the UFC. Bellator is just burning bridges by holding him hostage like this.

[BonesKnows]

why doesnt he have the right to just choose where he goes and fights? Ive never actually looked into this to get a better understanding, but i was always under the assumption of when your contract is up you could go fight anywhere you want, this appears to not be the case. Rep for anyone who break this down for me and save me the time of searching it on google

[Sniggles]

Is it really worth paying a non-champion big money to get him out of his contract?

[AnchorPunch]

Originally Posted by BonesKnows

why doesnt he have the right to just choose where he goes and fights? Ive never actually looked into this to get a better understanding, but i was always under the assumption of when your contract is up you could go fight anywhere you want, this appears to not be the case. Rep for anyone who break this down for me and save me the time of searching it on google

Long story short: the contract says that Bellator has the right to match any other offer when the contract is renegotiated. Then I think it becomes a huge mess because the contracts include PPV% and things that don't have direct comparisons between UFC and Bellator.

EDIT: In that sense, it's not unlike the non-compete clauses that extend past employment date you've probably seen as part of sports television for producers.

Originally Posted by Sniggles

Is it really worth paying a non-champion big money to get him out of his contract?

Seems like they want star power for Spike, and probably to avoid the label that they're the minors. But it seems like the tournament format might be enough to get the casual Weds night viewer and be the right approach. It'll be interesting if they can scoop up viewership that way before the UFC is on Fox and FX frequently enough.

[lwbrewer]

Wonder how long he would have to set out before the matching offer expires for Belator

[Rise]

Originally Posted by lwbrewer

Wonder how long he would have to set out before the matching offer expires for Belator

Probably for quite some time from what I've heard Bellator has contracts worded that are pretty favourable to them when it comes to things like matching offers and extending contracts. They followed the UFC mold pretty heavily in this.

Would surprise if the clause allowed for him to sign freely with anyone without having to sit out at least a year.

[Trustym2]

It amazes me that fighters aren't more careful, especially the top guys. It is my understanding that a Promotion can in general release a fighter whenever they want. Maybe the fighters should be sure it goes both ways to prevent something like this.