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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Late last week, Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney fired back at Eddie Alvarez, accusing him of making completely false statements regarding a number of things in several interviews he did during the week. One of Rebney's biggest points of contention was Alvarez stating that Bellator and Viacom tried to change the wording of what they needed to match when they sent him his early release letter. Here's what Rebney's response was to that:
"It's one of the aspects that's been so disconcerting. If you go to the court filings, every single document is there. There was never a change of a single word. What Ed is talking about - and this is what is completely and totally untrue, this is false, this is a statement that's completely untrue - Ed's attorney and our attorneys were communicating consistently when that early release document was drafted. The 2008 contract that Ed signed with this company has the exact same wording in it. The exact same wording that the early release document has in it.
Ed's claims that somehow he was tricked into material terms being in that letter is absolutely, completely 100% false. The documents are available in the courthouse and I can forward the documents over to you. That is a completely false statement.
Ed was not misled, Ed was not in the communications. Ed's attorneys were talking to our attorneys. Ed came to us and literally said to us, "Hey, is there any reason for us to wait out this amount of time with the exclusive negotiation period?" And, literally, as a favor to Ed Alvarez, because of how I felt about him at the time - a feeling that no longer stands - but how I felt about him at the time, I said, "Of course. Let's just let you go get the offer. If we're going to match it, we'll match it, and if not, there's no reason to sit you out for 3 months. Let's just let you go get the offer." The wording in our contract that Ed signed and the wording in that early release document are exactly the same. There is no mention of material terms in the release letter. It's completely false, and it's in the court documents."
Rebney's correct that what is actually with the court does not say "material terms," because that's not what Alvarez signed. Alvarez wasn't saying that Bellator did change the terms, he was saying they attempted to change the terms by sending him an unrevised copy of his release letter after they caught that wording, and sending the updated version to his attorneys. Rebney is denying that, but it's Alvarez who has come out with proof of his statements, posting both versions of his early release letter - the one sent to him which he did not sign, and the one sent to his attorneys which he did - online. Here are the two letters side by side:
Alvarez was clearly not lying in regards to Bellator's attempt to change their matching terms to only needing to match "material terms" instead of "the terms," which would encompass the entirety of those offered by the UFC.
Penick's Analysis: Rebney clearly misunderstood what Alvarez was actually saying this week, because he had made it clear that he did not sign the release letter with the "material terms" wording. By making this public - and he's claiming to have text messages and email exchanges he plans to make public soon as well - Alvarez has backed up his statements and shown that, at the very least, this is one thing Bellator attempted to do. How much effect it might have is unclear, but it's certainly a factor in the on-going proceedings.
[Eddie Alvarez photo (c) Henry Dziekan III]
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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