It’s no secret that the UFC has a lock on most of the top talent in mixed martial arts. With past acquisitions of the WEC, Pride, and Strikeforce, they hold a near monopoly over the top level of the sport.
But there are a handful of fighters out there who have managed to earn both money and reputation competing in other, smaller organizations. These fighters have inspired feisty debate over the years regarding their placement in the rankings due to the fact that, as talented as they are, they haven’t exactly been facing the highest level of competition.
Former Bellator lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez is just such a fighter.
A professional mixed martial artist for nearly a decade, Alvarez cut his teeth on the local east coast circuit before graduating to the more prestigious promotions of Bodog, Dream, and Bellator. He’s impressed fans by compiling a record of 23 wins with only three losses—with 13 of those wins coming by knockout and three by submission.
He’s long been a top-10 ranked lightweight, having defeated the likes of Joachim Hansen, Tatsuya Kawajiri, Roger Huerta, Pat Curran and, most recently, Shinya Aoki.
Eddie lost his Bellator title to the young buzz saw Michael Chandler late last year, but Chandler is a phenomenal talent, and that loss should not diminish the star of Alvarez.
At 28, he’s just coming into his athletic prime. He’s exciting and well-rounded, with heavy hands and a lot of charisma. And the UFC needs him.
Make no mistake, the UFC lightweight division is perhaps the deepest division in the entire sport. There’s no shortage of contenders, and in the UFC Alvarez would be just another guy in line. But that’s what keeps a division so interesting. Fresh contenders provide more competition, which ups everybody’s game. That’s why the lightweight division is also perhaps the most exciting division in the entire sport.
They don’t need Alvarez to survive, of course. It’s a different type of need. They need him, as well as any top talent they can get their hands on, to thrive well into the future.
It’s about vision.
Steve Jobs didn’t dominate the tech world with complacent assumptions that his product line was good enough. He did it by playing chess, not checkers.
Alvarez just completed his Bellator contract. As is commonplace with MMA contracts, Bellator will have an exclusive bargaining time frame to try and hammer out a new deal. If an agreement cannot be reached, Alvarez can then seek employment elsewhere, and Bellator has the right to match any offer he may receive.
Don’t be surprised if Bellator doesn’t let Alvarez go without a fight. They just lost middleweight champion Hector Lombard to the UFC, and while they’ll survive an Alvarez departure as well, promotions do not thrive by losing all their established stars.
In the end, however, it’s difficult to match the procurement power of the UFC.
Alvarez will likely end up fighting in the Octagon by fall, and we’ll have yet another contender to keep the lightweight division fresh well into the future.
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