Bellator Sues Alvarez: Updates from todays court session

http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2013/1/7/3847076/eddie-alvarez-sued-bellator-after-they-tried-to-match-ufc-contract-mma

Eddie Alvarez has found himself in a sticky situation as the UFC and
Bellator battle for his services. He told The MMA Hour today that he's
now being sued by his former employer.

Last week it came out that Lightweight Eddie Alvarez
had gotten caught between the webs of the UFC and Bellator. Alvarez had
completed his contracted fights with Bellator after a first round KO of
Patricky Freire
in October. But when the UFC made him an offer in December, Bellator
decided to invoke their matching rights to keep him under their banner.
Alvarez announced his frustration with the situation on Twitter shortly after. On Monday he appeared on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani to discuss some more details:

Eddie Alvarez wrote:

Everyone's heard that Bellator has match and whatnot. it's a difficult
situation. We went to settlement a couple days ago. We had a settlement
meeting where everything was supposed to get worked out. I was sued
maybe 30 minutes after that. There's a lot of tension in the air.

We
don't believe it was matched at all. I wanted to give details but I
can't because we're in the middle of a pending lawsuit. If I want to go
to dinner with one guy and another guy asked me to dinner. If the
attention of one guy is to take me to a fine dining restaurant and the
other guy wants to take me to McDonald's, guy #2 just thinks dinner's
dinner.

They're going to the media and saying they matched the
offer, but in our opinion they didn't match at all. The terms are not
the same.

If this goes in front of anyone in court, they're
going to see that this is not a match. The truth is this is
disappointing. I gave a lot to Bellator and I don't get much back in
return.

If it was a match I'd be more than happy to honor the
contract. I would have no problem going to fight for Bellator. I'd love
to fight the Ben Henderson's and Gil Melendez's. The issues has to do
with being fair. The contract says at the end we get to match this
contract. I said yes to that 4 years ago. In our eyes it is not a match.
This is the difference of a lot of money.

It's up to the court now, man. I'm being sued. it's going up before a judge. I think it will become very clear.

it wasn't a Hector Lombard deal, but it was a good deal. And I consider a much bettor deal than what Bellator's offering.

Tried
to make an offer to make it fair. We offered a number, it was less than
projected UFC offer. The conversation was over in less tha a minute,
like "No way". It wasn't a half hour after that that I had a lawsuit.

This has been most violent, most tactical, most heartless battle I have ever been I and I don't have gloves or a mouthpiece in.

Eddie wasn't able to give a timeline for his expected return to
action. All he said was "A bad settlement is always better than great
litigation." For now he's being sued by Bellator for refusing to sign
the contract they presented to match the UFC's offer. According to his Twitter, Eddie believes he'd have to sit out for a year to nullify Bellator's matching rights.

Bloody Elbow will keep you updated as this story develops further.

They need to let him go. Bellator is hurting itself more then helping I think.

Well, i'm curious on what Bellators terms were. Id imagine it's not the same language as they have different business models so i hope Eddie isnt dismissing the contract based on that without really knowing what he's looking at. I'm sure the differences are non guaranteed terms.

Bellator either went over all the data and know their deal matches UFC's or they were trying to trick Eddie and now are trying to strong arm him. Since they are willing to present their offer in front of a court though, they must be confident they have a match. If the thing reaches a settlement then i just have the feeling Bellator was bluffing and were trying to trick Eddie into signing. Which is dirty.

I hope it is a match though. Would be a shame if UFC could keep poaching fighters with terms with no guaranteed value attached to them simply due to their PPV model. They can tell any fighter they are in line for PPV points and never put them in a position to earn those. Hector, for example, fought on FX and the big trump card in his deal was PPV points. Nothing wrong with incentive based deals, but i just hope Bellator actually does find a way to match those.

Bellator really should not have given Eddie those two fights. Patricky is alright but i don't know why they gave him the Aoki bout. I thought they were just trying to do the guy a favor and let him boost his value before he hit free agency to get him a better pay day because he was one of the foundation guys. Apprently not though..they just boosted his value to make him harder to keep. Im pretty sure it wasnt because they were trying to grab ratings because i don't think they cared about ratings for the MTV2 show. It does not make sense to give him the higher profile fights in the main event against 2 of the best non Zuffa LW's while Chandler fought an over the hill Akhiro Gono. Eddie should have been fighting Gono.

Ghey!

I am not shocked at all, had a feeling things would get ugly. I just hope Eddie doesn't suffer through this by sitting on the sidelines for too long.

http://www.mmajunkie.com/news/2013/01/eddie-alvarezs-ufc-offer-includes-immediate-title-shot-pay-per-view-cut

Quote :

A UFC contract outlines the company's intent to book Alvarez an immediate title shot in March and offers a cut of the promotion's pay-per-view profits, according to an exhibit in a lawsuit Bellator MMA filed against the 28-year-old fighter, a copy of which today was obtained by MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com).

An eight-fight deal starts Alvarez at $70,000 to show and $70,000 to win and raises in $5,000 increments with each win until it tops out at a guaranteed $210,000 for a win, the exhibit states. Alvarez is also guaranteed a $250,000 signing bonus, payable in two installments of $85,000 and one of $80,000.

When Alvarez fights on a UFC pay-per-view broadcast, the offer entitles him to $1 for each "buy" between 200,000 and 400,000 buys, $2 per buy between 400,000 and 600,000 buys, and $2.50 per buy over 600,000 buys.

Additionally, Alvarez is guaranteed a fight on a UFC on FOX card and three appearances as a commentator at UFC-branded events.

Immediate title shot my ass.

KingsOwn19 wrote:

Immediate title shot my ass.

Yeah I'd love to see how that would sit with Gil, Pettis and Maynard.

Ali* wrote:

KingsOwn19 wrote:

Immediate title shot my ass.

Yeah I'd love to see how that would sit with Gil, Pettis and Maynard.

WTF does Maynard have to complain about? 2 of his last 3 fights were for the title.

OU wrote:

Ali* wrote:

KingsOwn19 wrote:

Immediate title shot my ass.

Yeah I'd love to see how that would sit with Gil, Pettis and Maynard.

WTF does Maynard have to complain about? 2 of his last 3 fights were for the title.

Well to have Alvarez jumping ahead of him is a bit much, IMO Gray is only a couple wins away from getting another shot.

Personally, he is not at the front of my line at LW right now. But he has been a top contender and talent at LW imo for the last several years so if he did get the immediate shot, I'd have very little complaint. He is on equal footing more or less than those mentioned imo.

Ali* wrote:

OU wrote:

Ali* wrote:

KingsOwn19 wrote:

Immediate title shot my ass.

Yeah I'd love to see how that would sit with Gil, Pettis and Maynard.

WTF does Maynard have to complain about? 2 of his last 3 fights were for the title.

Well to have Alvarez jumping ahead of him is a bit much, IMO Gray is only a couple wins away from getting another shot.

Fuck no it's not. EA beatdown Aoki and Pitbull his last 2 fights. Gray ran down huggie bear for a SD. Before that he was the only fucker to get knocked out by Edgar.
EA is closer to a shot then Maynard.

GDPofDRC wrote:

Personally, he is not at the front of my line at LW right now. But he has been a top contender and talent at LW imo for the last several years so if he did get the immediate shot, I'd have very little complaint. He is on equal footing more or less than those mentioned imo.

People are complaining about Gil since many felt he lost to Thompson last fight. But if Pettis loses to Cowboy then who out there is more deserving then Gil and Eddie? Cowboy sure the fuck won't be more deserving.

I wouldn't mind seeing a third Bendo vs. Cowboy fight.

Ali* wrote:

I wouldn't mind seeing a third Bendo vs. Cowboy fight.

Maybe down the road. But you think Cowboy would have more rights to that shot then Eddie or Gil?

Most peoples criticisms with Gil and Eddie has to do with UFC bias from people who do not see the real picture.

OU wrote:

Ali* wrote:

I wouldn't mind seeing a third Bendo vs. Cowboy fight.

Maybe down the road. But you think Cowboy would have more rights to that shot then Eddie or Gil?

It depends on his performance against Showtime, if Donald comes out and decimates Tony I wouldn't be shocked if he got a shot.

I think Gil will be next though.

GDPofDRC wrote:

Most peoples criticisms with Gil and Eddie has to do with UFC bias from people who do not see the real picture.

Exactly. I can't imagine anyone thinking Cowboy should even be in the same discussion for a title shot. Even with a win over Pettis.

Alvarez is going to ask a judge to free him from Bellator so he can fight on the UFC 159 card.

http://www.mmajunkie.com/news/2013/01/eddie-alvarez-and-bellator-head-to-court-as-potential-ufc-159-bout-looms

IF by some miracle Eddie does get free I reckon the UFC want Alvarez vs. Miller.

Ali* wrote:

Alvarez is going to ask a judge to free him from Bellator so he can fight on the UFC 159 card.

http://www.mmajunkie.com/news/2013/01/eddie-alvarez-and-bellator-head-to-court-as-potential-ufc-159-bout-looms

IF by some miracle Eddie does get free I reckon the UFC want Alvarez vs. Miller.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1478368-eddie-alvarez-ufc-offer-included-pay-per-view-share-commentary-opportuities

the UFC's offer includes PPV points and an immediate title shot. Bellator probably loses this due to not being able to offer him up to 1.9mil for a single fight.

I'd be shocked if Alvarez didn't win but will it definitely get resolved Friday? I could see more hearings involved

I'd rather see EA-Maynard than Miller

Ali* wrote:

I wouldn't mind seeing a third Bendo vs. Cowboy fight.

I wouldn't either considering Bendo lost the first fight.

Lets not act like the Bendo of the UFC is the same fighter that fought Cowboy in the WEC, he's on another level

I'm about as big a Cerrone supporter as we have here at Ninja's, but I don't think he deserves a shot. Too many other sharks in that tank to be honest. A win over Pettis does help but he's still only two fights removed from being completely smashed by Diaz. If he gets past Pettis I say one more win would earn him a shot. I would put Maynard, Alvarez, and possibly even Melendez ahead of Cerrone in terms of the title shot pecking order. Of course this is subject to change with how the landscape at 155 is ever changing. Top 15 is essentially the top 10 in this division because of the sheer depth.