Filed under: Bellator
When Bellator inked Roger Huerta back in March in their first significant free-agent signing, company CEO Bjorn Rebney probably pictured him one day facing Eddie Alvarez for the lightweight championship. Things didn’t play out that way. Huerta lost a close split-decision to Pat Curran in the tournament semifinals, and the fight that was probably the biggest bout the promotion could have hoped for seemed like it wouldn’t happen.
But life has a funny way of bringing together the inevitable, and when Curran suffered an injury that put him out of action, Rebney wasted no time in approving Alvarez-Huerta. The bout takes place as the main event of tonight’s Bellator 33 at the Liacoruas Center in Alvarez’s hometown, Philadelphia.
While the fight is a non-title bout, it still should be hotly contested, with both men bluntly stating they have something real to prove. For Alvarez, it’s a chance to further cement his place as one of the lightweight division’s elite while Huerta aims to put his recent struggles behind and reestablish himself as a rising star.