According to a Jan. 17 report from Yahoo! Sports, Eddie Alvarez's manager doesn't want his fighter to get caught up in a lengthy court case.
Glenn Robinson, who manages numerous UFC fighters along with Alvarez, thinks the UFC's offer to his fighter is much better than the one Bellator offered.
Robinson said it's all about the pay-per-view money that the UFC can potentially bring to Alvarez, which is something Bellator cannot realistically offer at this point in time.
"The reason [Bellator] threw in the sweeteners from our point of view is that they were trying to get closer to the reality of the numbers by adding other stuff in because they knew they couldn't meet the numbers," Robinson told Yahoo! Sports. "So Eddie turns around and says, 'Well, I don't want any of the sweeteners. I just want what I'd get in the UFC offer.' That's a chance to fight for the title. They offered him a chance to be the co-main event of a GSP card. That card has a value."
"You can look at that card when you're discussing a match and when someone says, 'I'm going to put you on this particular card,' you can see and figure out what the value is based on the history," Robinson added. "You could say, 'OK, GSP has never done below 690,000 pay-per-views,' over the last seven pay-per-views. He averaged 854,000 pay-per-views and he did 700,000 pay-per-views against Condit. Let's say he does 700,000 again now and does at the low end of his range. ... That's worth $1.2 million [for Alvarez] for the first fight."
Robinson said the 29-year-old Alvarez should receive the opportunity to provide for his family by maximizing his full potential inside the cage.
"Shouldn't he have a right to earn what he can?" Robinson said. "If he has five years left of really strong fighting [and high-earning potential], then one year with Bellator equals 20 percent of his [remaining] fighting career. And they can't demonstrate they'll even do a single pay-per-view."
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