Eddie Alvarez sued by Bellator

MMA Junkie reports on the issue with Eddie Alvarez. The ex-Bellator fighter is a not such a free agent with negotiations with the UFC and Bellator hitting a huge snag and destined for the courts.

In December, the UFC made an offer to the outstanding lightweight, however, Bellator invoked its “matching rights” clause in his contract in an effort to keep Alvarez.  Bellator claims to have matched the offer made by the UFC however it did not take into account other streams of compensation (i.e., PPV upside, discretionary bonuses).

Alvarez was sued by Bellator according to the fighter in an interview on the MMA Hour.  Although no details have surfaced, its likely that Bellator is suing based on its “matching rights” clause in his contract.

According to MMA Junkie, Alvarez would have received a $250,000 signing bonus and would make a $70K to show and $70K win bonus from the UFC.

In comparison, the current champ of the weight class, Benson Henderson, tweeted to a follower that he gets a base of $39K for show with a $39K win bonus.

Payout Perspective:

“A bad settlement is always better than great litigation,” said Alvarez (via Bloody Elbow).  A great quote if you aren’t a litigator of course.  Its not clear what specific causes of action Bellator would bring against Alvarez but breach of contract would be a likely claim.

Alvarez is in a sticky situation at this point.  He does not want to have this keep him out of action for a prolonged period of time.  Think of what that did to the momentum of Brandon Vera’s career.  His was a different contract dispute but the gist is the layoff set back his career.

Recall last year Bellator fighter Tyson Nam faced a similar situation with a similar clause. Nam had a matching rights period of 18 months.  It seems as though this window was only two weeks.

The matching rights clause appears to be similar to the “Franchise Tag” in the NFL.  Briefly, with a franchise tag, there’s an impasse in negotiation between organization and player, the team would be able to retain the player’s rights provided it pay the player an amount reflecting an average paid for their position (I believe top 10 paid in their position).  This would prevent another team from signing the player.

The aftermath of this could benefit fighters if Bellator prevails it may mean it would secure more guaranteed money on behalf of fighters.  Thus, in matching contracts, the UFC would have to pay more defined money than just rely on vague incentive payments.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Payout/~3/0pumE7_dlLk/

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