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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
When Eddie Alvarez's contract came up with Bellator this fall, it was widely assumed he'd receive a contract offer from the UFC, and that more than likely he'd be entering the Octagon by 2013. Half of that has come to pass, as the UFC did indeed offer him a deal, but Bellator and parent company Viacom have the option to match what the UFC offered.
The last we heard, Bellator was in the process of looking over that deal and deciding whether or not to match it, but it appears as though there will be more to the story given some comments from UFC President Dana White on Thursday.
White was asked for an update on the Alvarez situation on Thursday following the pre-fight press conference for UFC 155 in Las Vegas, and he gave a fairly cryptic response that hints at some machinations behind the scenes.
"Umm, yeah, I just don't know if I can talk about it," White commented on Thursday to reporters (transcribed by MMAFighting.com).
That response begged the follow up: will Bellator be matching the offer and resigning Alvarez?
"No, that's not what's going on," White said. "It's... yeah. It's going to get ugly."
When pressed for further clarification of that comment, White again remained cryptic.
"What do you think it is? What do you think I'm talking about?" he asked back. "If I could talk about it, I would."
"I think it's going to get ugly."
Penick's Analysis: It's really hard to read into just what could get "ugly" in this situation. If it's not Bellator matching and White going after them or Alvarez for sticking in the smaller pond, I'm not sure what else could be going on at the moment. Do Viacom and Bellator have an option to counter-offer, moving things back to the UFC? Will it come down to Alvarez? Are they dragging out the process of matching or not matching, going back to White's previous criticisms of the organization from earlier this year? It's all speculation at this point, but expect something more to come from this in the next couple of weeks.
[Eddie Alvarez photo (c) Henry Dziekan III]
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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