For Bellator lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez (22-2), proving that he’s one of the best 155 pound fighters in the world is one important part of his personality, but controlling his own destiny means to him than moving promotions to fight the best.
With many of the worlds best fighters coming under control of Zuffa, after their purchase of Strikeforce, Alvarez still does not see the appeal of signing with the worlds biggest promotion as the risk-reward ratio isn’t worth it for him. Added to the top of the list is the amount of control Alvarez would be giving up to sign a UFC contract.
In a recent interview with Josh Gross (audio), which was transcribed by FightOpinion.com, Alvarez talked about everything he’d be giving up simply for a chance to fight the top fighters in the UFC.
“I feel like I still can have some sort of say with where my career goes and what sponsors I want to get and whether I want to be in a video game or not. There’s a lot of things. The whole signing with Zuffa thing is a big control issue with me and I don’t know, I just… I’m happy that they’re doing what they’re doing but right now I don’t know if it’s the right move for me…”
“They can offer someone, you know, $5,000 and $5,000, the guy can fight at first and get his face broken to pieces and then he can totally put on a poor performance and then get fired. That scares me. I would like to be paid like an athlete and, I don’t know. I guess I have a lot of issues with it and when I was, I believe when I was ranked #2 in the world, I was offered something from the UFC but it was significantly lower than what I was getting paid at that time, almost like insultingly low and I just, it wasn’t the right move for me at that time….”
“It would be great to fight them guys but at what cost, you know what I mean? At what cost to me? Do I have to, what measures do I have to take in order to fight them guys? Do I have to take an $80,000 pay cut? Do I have give up all my, every single ancillary right I can dream of? Do I have to, you know, now I can’t get certain sponsors that I want to get certain sponsors that I want to get because I have to pay the UFC before they pay me? There’s a lot of issues involved and I don’t know if people understand that. And if I was 20 years old and I was single and I had no kids, I would jump to the UFC tomorrow. But the reality is (that) I have three kids and I have a family to take care of and everything has to line up.”