According to a Jan. 7 report from MMA Fighting, Bellator MMA CEO Bjorn Rebney insists his promotion matched the UFC's offer to Eddie Alvarez.
"I will tell you point blank, no questions asked, we matched it dollar for dollar, term for term and section for section," Rebney said. "To avoid any kind of ambiguity, let me make clear, we took the UFC contract, we took it out of the PDF format, we changed the name 'UFC' to 'Bellator' and we signed it. We didn't alter a word, we didn't alter a phrase, we didn't alter a section, we didn't alter a dollar figure."
Rebney isn't sure if the promotion's dispute with Alvarez will turn into a long, drawn out battle, of if the matter will be solved quickly.
"Ed and I have four years of a good working relationship and about 30 days of not a good relationship," Rebney said. "When you weigh those factors out, there's a very high likelihood we could shake hands and get past it with a fair amount of ease. Ed's in business and as you can see from the numbers, it can be a very lucrative business. I know I can shove off and move forward, put things back in line in short order. I hope Ed can do the same. It may be a long, drawn out fight between the two or something that can be settled relatively quickly. We'll see."
Alvarez apparently thinks he could make more money with the UFC from pay-per-view incentives, but Rebney isn't so sure.
"There is no guaranteed pay-per-view in the UFC offer to Eddie Alvarez," Rebney responded. "We as Bellator don't have to match projections. We don't have to match what could conceptually happen. We have to match guaranteed dollars and what the UFC contractually guaranteed would occur. That is what we are held to."
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