According to a Jan. 25 report from MMA Fighting, Bellator MMA veteran Eddie Alvarez has been denied the opportunity to fight at UFC 159 due to a judge ruling against a request for an injunction.
"It is speculative to suggest, as Alvarez does, that an inability to compete in the April 27 event will result in irreparable harm in the form of a lost opportunity to obtain notoriety, endorsements, and a wider exposure to viewers," Judge Linares wrote of the Alvarez case.
If the injunction would have gone through, Alvarez would be able to compete in the world's most well-known MMA promotion.
Since Alvarez won't have the chance to compete on the UFC 159 card, he is losing out on endorsements, career advancement, superior audience demographics and widened exposure.
"How do you get 200,000 pay-per-views on an initial pay-per-view? It's unheard of," said co-counsel Frank Smith. "I don't doubt anything can happen. But wouldn't it have been incumbent upon them today to show up with an affidavit from somebody? They could have asked the court to seal the record. There's way to handle this. Here's our date. Here's our venue. They haven't put anything before this court other than, 'Yes, we're going to do it, and we have a plan. A secret plan."
Bellator believes they matched the UFC's offer to Alvarez, but the standout fighter does not agree.
The main issue has to do with the fact that the UFC regularly has pay-per-view events, while Bellator does not.
"For Bellator to say they're matching a contract where the UFC is going to provide Mr. Alvarez with pay-per-view events and everything that comes with it: the money, the viewership the fame, it's impossible," lead attorney Steven R. Klein said. "They can't do it."
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