Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Philadelphia's Alvarez back with Bellator

Philadelphia native Eddie Alvarez has ended his lengthy legal battle with the Bellator MMA promotion and re-signed with the group.

The former lightweight champion will return to Bellator for a Nov. 2 pay-per-view title match against current kingpin Michael Chandler. The bout will serve as the semifinal for a card headlined by former UFC stars Tito Ortiz and Rampage Jackson. 

Chandler, a former All-American wrestler at Missouri, beat Alvarez to win the title back in 2011.

Alvarez's original Bellator contract expired in October and UFC offered him a deal guaranteeing pay-per-view royalties on his first show with the company as well as further shows if he was champion. The contract also included at least one appearance on FOX television and eight fights overall.

Bellator had a one year matching rights period and equaled the guaranteed financial terms, but substituted its TV partner Spike in place of FOX.

Alvarez wanted the UFC deal and claimed the rights were not matching because the exposure on FOX was far greater than Spike, and PPV points from Bellator meant nothing because the company had never done a PPV show. 

With a long legal battle looming Alvarez and Bellator worked out a settlement which included the title rematch with Chandler on the company's first PPV show. 

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