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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
As this is being written, Eddie Alvarez remains under contract to Bellator. Whether that is the case by the end of the week remains to be seen.
That's according to current Bellator President Scott Coker, who explained on Monday that the situation is in the hands of lawyers at the moment.
"I'll tell you. Eddie's a great kid," Coker said on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani. "I sat down with him one time and basically he told me all the challenges he had with the past regime. I totally got it. He's a great kid. He's a great fighter. He had a bad taste in his mouth on a whole lot on a lot of different levels. When he told me what happened, I said, 'You know, I don't blame you. I totally understand.'"
"Right now, where it's at today is," Coker continued, "Eddie's still a fighter under contract with Bellator. I know that lawyers are involved and that's something that happened way before I came to this company. Right now, I don't have an update for you on that."
"I wish I had more to discuss about Eddie, but honestly, Ariel, at this point, when lawyers are involved. When you get two lawyers in a room, it just takes a long time to get stuff done... I think there's a lot of things in play because we're a television property. It's not just one person's decision. We make a collective decision, but like I said, I wish I had an answer for you. It goes back to, there's other people involved, and at this point, lawyers are talking to lawyers. That's just where it's at."
Coker believes things will be figured out soon, and says they're not trying to hold up the process if it can be helped.
Penick's Analysis: They have to figure out whether or not it makes any sense for them to take a hardline stance on the final fight from the settlement reached last year. Since Alvarez beat Michael Chandler, and that's the fight agreed upon in the settlement, Bellator was pushing for it with Bjorn Rebney at the helm. Viacom may still want to get that last fight out of Alvarez, but then again, maybe they're more willing to part ways with him now that they're trying to move forward under Coker, because if he's a free agent anyway after that fight, what's the point? Hopefully something gets figured out this week as Coker says, because if he's going to stay in Bellator or if he's going to get his shot in the UFC, a decision should be made quickly.
[Eddie Alvarez photo (c) Henry Dziekan III]
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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