Bellator lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez was scheduled to fight Michael Chandler in their trilogy bout at Bellator 120, but a head injury forced Alvarez to pull out of the fight.
On Saturday night, Chandler lost his second straight controversial decision as Will Brooks won by split decision.
Brooks is now the interim champion and you would think that he would be up next for Alvarez in a title unification bout.
However, Bellator MMA Chairman and CEO Bjorn Rebney told TheMMAReport.com during his post fight scrum that Alvarez’s contract calls for his next fight to be against Chandler.
“The reality of the Ed situation is that Ed’s contract specifies that his next fight would be against Michael Chandler,” Rebney said. “So Ed now is in a position where he can choose to fight Chandler, and contractually we have to give him the Chandler fight after he beat Chandler the first time. It’s a situation we’ll have to sit down and discuss with Ed, and figure out where it goes, because he’s got paperwork and he’s got a contract that gives him the right to demand the Chandler fight.”
The ball is now in the court of Alvarez and his management to decide what they want to do. Contractually, he can tell Bellator that he wants to fight Chandler next and Brooks will have to wait on the sideline.
Alvarez has one fight left on his deal, no matter what his decision is. It would appear likely that Alvarez’s next fight will be on pay-per-view but Rebney said there is some “optionality” on that aspect but Alvarez will have to decide first who he wants to fight next.
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