UFC 178 is already shaping up to be a stacked card, but the UFC aren’t quite finished with it yet and are rumored to be targeting a fight between Donald Cerrone and Eddie Alvarez for the Las Vegas event on September 27th.
The rumor comes from a source close to the situation according to Sherdog.com which lends credibility to a match-up that will raise some eyebrows given that Alvarez is still currently signed to Bellator and is their lightweight champion.
The UFC previously tried to sign the 30 year-old in 2012 when his contract ran out, but Alvarez then became embroiled in a bitter dispute with Bellator who had the option to retain him and wanted to excercise that right.
That led to something of a stalemate as both sides prepared for what could have been a lengthy legal battle, but Alvarez eventually relented in the summer of last year and eventually returned to fight the champion at the time, Michael Chandler, defeating him by split decision to re-establish himself as Bellator’s lightweight champ.
It’s believed that the UFC are again trying to reach a deal to bring alvarez to the Octagon, and perhaps they will have better luck this time given that previous Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney who they had somewhat of an adversarial relationship with has now been replaced by Scott Coker who was at one stage a UFC employee after the acquisition of Strikeforce.
If they can strike a deal then this would be an excellent lightweight match-up as Alvarez is one of Bellator’s biggest stars thanks to the exciting fights he’s put on during his four year stint there, whereas Cerrone is of course also known as one of the most consistently entertaining fighters on the UFC’s roster.
Both men are also in good form with Cerrone currently enjoying a four-fight unbeaten stretch, while Alvarez has won his last three bouts.
Cerrone Vs Alvarez could ensure that UFC 178 stacks up as one of the most well-rounded fight cards the promotion has put on in recent memory with a must-see light-heavyweight title headliner between Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier being backed up by the likes of Connor McGregor Vs Dustin Poirier, Dominick Cruz Vs Takeya Mizugaki, Tim Kennedy Vs Yoel Romero and Jorge Masvidal Vs Bobby Green.
Even the announced preliminary bouts for the card so far look appealing, featuring the likes of Cat Zingano Vs Amanda Nunes, John ‘Doomsday’ Howard Vs Bryan Ebersole and Patrick Cote Vs Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson, making this the best-value pay-per-view event of the year.
