The strange, downright crappy relationship between Bellator and their former Lightweight Champion Eddie Alvarez has been incredibly well-documented, I’d like to believe. Alvarez was being courted by Dana White and the UFC for a while, but many believe it was just a move to shake up the competition and force them to scramble. If it was, it ended up putting Alvarez on the shelf for a while, with him as the victim here as Bellator and Viacom refused to release him from his contract, which went as far as going to court to try to get Alvarez out of his contract. Why? Bellator didn’t have PPV and couldn’t match the UFC’s offer on PPV matching. Now they have PPV and Alvarez will be on it.
Seems like a strange solution, but it is apparently a solution. Regardless of all of the political crap, Eddie Alvarez vs. Michael Chandler was an awesome fight, if not one of the best fights in Bellator history, and we get to see a rematch. That alone seems like a reason to consider buying a Bellator PPV, as Tito vs. Rampage isn’t gonna be selling much. Alvarez should be getting a cut of this PPV money here as well, but let’s be honest, how many PPVs is Bellator really going to sell? My guess is in the “Affliction range,” but that could be off.