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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
As late as last month, Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney was hopeful that the organization would be able to come to a settlement with lightweight Eddie Alvarez in their current contract dispute. Unfortunately, those hopes seem to be unfounded, and the process appears to be going closer and closer to trial.
In an interview with MMAFighting.com this past week, Rebney closed the door on an early resolution, and believes they're headed for the long haul in the judicial process.
"I had hope a month ago there was a door opening," Rebney said. "But that door isn't open at this point. So I don't know. The court system is slow and methodical, and we're just going through the process. I don't have any projections of it getting settled at this point because we're not talking. The essence of it is, the promoter is never going to get everything he wants and the fighter is never going to get everything he wants. We have a position that we did everything right legally, and the court has supported us. I thought we were headed down a road [to resolution], and then everything went real dark."
So now, the waiting game continues to be played, with Alvarez stuck on the sidelines in the prime of his career.
Penick's Analysis: It's really too bad that Alvarez is spending a key time in his professional life going through this issue, but he feels that Bellator hasn't matched the UFC's offer and doesn't want to settle for less. That's a reasonable hard line stance for him to take, and he's going to push it to trial to plead his case and to at the very least get the type of money from Bellator that he feels is involved in the UFC deal. Best case scenario from him will see him head to the Octagon as soon as possible, but we're still a long way away from that.
Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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