Eddie Alvarez has agreed to bury the hatchet with the Bellator promotion and will now compete on their upcoming pay-per-view event in November.
The former lightweight champion’s contract with Bellator came to an end late last year and he had looked to be all set to sign a lucrative deal with the UFC before Bellator opted to exercise their legal right to match the UFC’s offer in order to keep him.
Alvarez disputed this however on the grounds that Bellator couldn’t offer him the same deal as the UFC given that they weren’t even in the pay-per-view business and couldn’t offer him the same level of exposure he’d get with the sport’s leading promotion.
With the two parties unable to reach an amicable agreement the matter looked to be headed to court, but while Alvarez was initially willing to sit it out until this was resolved, his plans appear to have changed after it emerged that the case might not even be heard until September of 2014.
So, Alvarez has, sensibly under the circumstances, opted to make amends and he’ll now face current lightweight champion Michael Chandler in a title rematch on Bellator’s inaugural pay-per-view event on September 2nd.
“I still lose sleep over my loss to Chandler, and I want it off my record,” Alvarez stated in a press release to announce his return to Bellator. “This was a long process, but at the end of the day I’m back with Bellator and I’m happy to get back in the cage. I really believe everything happens for a reason, and at the end of the day my family and I are happy, and I’m ready to get my belt back on Nov. 2.”
What still remains unclear is whether Alvarez’s obligations to Bellator will have been met once this fight is over.
Presumably if he wins he’ll have to stay on as he’d then be the Bellator lightweight champion, but it’s possible that if he loses he could become a free agent which would pave the way for a move to the UFC if they were still interested, though almost certainly for less money than he was initially offered.
