Still No Word on Contract Offer for Top Free Agent Eddie Alvarez

Still no word on contract offer for top free agent Eddie Alvarez
by Steven Marrocco on Nov 21, 2012 at 10:00 am ET

Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney said he spoke to Eddie Alvarez on Monday and doesn't have an update on the fighter's future.

Rebney has yet to receive a UFC contract offer that would decide whether the tournament-based promotion holds onto the ex-champ or cuts him loose.

"We're literally waiting," he told MMAjunkie.com.

As earlier reported, Rebney cut the remainder of a 90-day exclusive negotiating period that would have kept Alvarez (24-3 MMA, 9-1 BFC) from receiving offers from competing promotions.

The promotion now holds the right to match or decline those offers for a period of six months, and has 15 days to make the choice. But an offer from the UFC hasn't crossed Rebney's desk, and the CEO isn't sure why.

The UFC is interested in Alvarez but hasn't made public an offer to the lightweight, who fulfilled the final fight on his Bellator contract by knocking out Patricky "Pitbull" Freire at Bellator 76 this past month.

Alvarez, meanwhile, has been mum on his career's direction. Rebney's position hasn't changed.

"It really becomes for us a mathematical analysis," he said. "We know where we would want to be with Ed, we know what kind of a deal structure would work for Bellator and our partners at Spike TV, and we're just waiting."

Rebney previously told MMAjunkie.com that the promotion could offer Alvarez a deal structure and ancillary opportunities that could compete with the incentives offered by the UFC, whose top-star deals frequently receive pay-per-view bonuses.

"We'd like to keep him, but it will all boil down to the numbers," Rebney said.