Eddie Alvarez still in talks with Bellator about his next fight despite the UFC's interest

Written by Brandon Nocaute Tuesday, 22 May 2012 10:00

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It appears former Bellator lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez will be having at the very least one more fight under the Bellator banner even if he decides to leave the promotion. Bajorn Rebney says he will be sitting down with the former champion in an attempt to strike a deal to keep the heavy handed lightweight striker with Bellator Fighting Championships.

“Eddie and I are sitting down and banging through it. If we can get a deal, we’ll get a deal done." Rebney said via MMAjunkie.com "And if we can’t get a deal done, then he’ll have one last fight with us, which obviously we’ll promote like crazy, and it’ll be a big fight for him against someone super tough.”

It is not secret that the UFC has shown interest in the impressive lightweight especially after picking up the biggest win of his career avenging his 2008 loss to Shinya Aoki. Rebney says he will go through the same process with Alvarez as he did with Lombard if the UFC does indeed offer Alvarez a contract after his next bout.

“We’d go through that same process (as Lombard) where Ed’s able to test the waters and entertain offers." he said. "For the time being, we have a long time left on the deal, and one fight left. We just need to sit down and work it out with Ed and decide which road we go down. Ed is awesome, and there are a lot of different things and a lot of hoops I will jump through to try to get a deal done with Ed to keep him in this organization. But altering the format – altering what makes us who were are – is not one of them.”

Bajorn Rebney is a smart man and his willingness to jump through hoops to keep Alvarez on bored could prove to be the difference if Alvarez does make the decision to stay. The most logical move would be offering the former champion a chance to avenge his loss to current champ and undefeated Michael Chandler who already agreed to a rematch if Alvarez would make the decision to stay in the promotion as Alvarez made it clear that he was uninterested in joining another tournament.

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