Eddie Alvarez vs Shinya Aoki bout is at risk

When we caught up with Eddie Alvarez last month, he was pretty excited about his an upcoming rematch with Dream Lightweight Chamption, Shinya Aoki. Accoridng to Fighter’s Only, There seems to be some issues with his contract negotiation, with both parties being described as being “miles apart” on numbers.

When Eddie spoke earlier this month to Heavy MMA, and had a much more optimistic view approaching the issue.

”I still have eight or nine months left on my contract with Bellator or one or two fights,” Alvarez said. “I’m waiting to finalize things, but I believe we are going to be doing the fight with Shinya Aoki. That would be on April 20, but we just received the contracts and we are looking them over. Nothing is 100 percent right now, but that is what we are aiming to do.”

Rumors are now strongly pointing to Alvarez making a move to the UFC, which would unfortunately shatter the former Bellator Lightweight Champion’s hopes of redemption on his 2008 loss to the Japanese superstar. Alvarez had gone unbeaten since that loss, until his last match up against Michael Chandler at Bellator 58, in which he lost the Lightweight Championship. If Eddie does make a move away from Bellator, it will be intersting to see how the division continues without his star power.

I was looking forward to seeing this matchup although i would have been more pumped had Eddie beat Chandler.

I think if Eddie future with Bellator is in limbo, i would save an Aoki visit for fighters they have long term. You don't want to give a guy with potentially one foot out the door the biggest fight in their short history of the promotion and potentially have him leave with a win over Aoki. That is a fight Michael Chandler should probably be getting.

I also don't think Alvarez has any significant star power. Any extra attention he has garnered in the united states has come under the Bellator banner and them promoting him as literally he #1 LW in the world. If Chandler had not beat him, the thought of him leaving woud be disasterous but if you're going to lose a guy, you can be happy he passed the proverbial torch. It will still suck for Bellator and all, Eddie is top 10 and personally i think he's better than Chandler but they pretty much got all they can want from a top ranked fighter who might leave to where they are prepared to lose him and move forward.