The story heading into Bellator 76 was that this was the last fight on the contract of former lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez. 
Heading into tonight, Alvarez had one fight left on his contract and he finished the contract with a knockout victory over Patricky Pitbull in the first round.
Before his training camp started, one of his friends gave him a book entitled, “The Power of Now” and he is just taking everything one day at a time.
He is not looking ahead to what will be coming with his free agency and is looking forward to spending time with his family, who he hasn’t seen in a month.
“Whatever happens after this, it’s not even up to me, it’s up to this man (Rebney) beside me and everybody else out there who bid on my services or whatever you want to call it,” Alvarez said. “Me, my wife, my family, we are going to take it one day at a time. We are going to go home. I have not seen my family in a month, so I am really looking forward to that. We are going to sit back, see what happens and focus on the now, right now.”
When the fight was over, Alvarez ran out of the cage and into the crowd. During the post fight press conference, he explained why he did that.
“I was going to run to my locker room and just leave,” he said. “I text Bjorn, because he said to the media a week ago and without me knowing. Me and Bjorn have out differences and we battle. He said to the media before this fight even happens that Ed Alvarez is in the past. I text him and I say man you cut me deep. I thought I’m going to win this fight and run out of the stadium and the hell with these guys. It’s not the right thing to do. I’ve been here for four years, great boss and he delivered in every aspect that he says he was going to deliver.”
Alvarez will now go through the same situation that former Bellator middleweight champion and now UFC fighter Hector Lombard went through earlier this year.
Bellator will have an exclusive period to talk with Alvarez on a new contract before he can go out and get another offer. Once the exclusive period is over and he gets an offer from another organization, Bellator will have the right to match the contract.
The UFC will certainly make an offer to Alvarez and UFC President Dana White has already sent him a message on Twitter and said, “let’s talk.” If the UFC wants to have Alvarez, they will make an offer to the lightweight that Bellator will not likely be able to match.