Scott Coker is entering his seventh week as Bellator President and he has already made one major decision by deciding to eliminate the tournament based format for a more traditional format. 
His next major decision could come down at any moment and that decision is what to do with current Bellator lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez.
Alvarez currently has one fight left on his settlement agreement and rumors began to circulate last week that Alvarez could be let out of his Bellator contract.
According to a report by Sherdog, Alvarez was being targeted to face Donald Cerrone at UFC 178, if the UFC was able to acquire the services of Alvarez from Bellator. On this report on Alvarez potentially having his next fight in the UFC, there is one important thing to remember. Alvarez has a legal document that makes him an exclusive fighter to Bellator and his representative, Glenn Robinson can not be negotiating a contract with the UFC unless he has permission to do so from Bellator.
As I reported last week, multiple sources told me that Alvarez is still a fighter on the Bellator roster. Obviously, that could change at any moment, but I heard from sources late last week that Alvarez is still a fighter signed to Bellator in a legal document.
For Coker, he has to make a tough decision. Will Alvarez end up fighting in the UFC at some point? The answer to that question is most likely, yes. Coker has said that he wants to make big fights happen in Bellator and he can do that with Alvarez. However, Alvarez only has one fight left on his deal. Would Coker or Viacom want to see Alvarez have another fight, walk away with a victory, and leave the promotion as the lightweight champion? Only Coker and Viacom know the answer, but most people believe that Viacom would not want to see that happen.
Since Coker became the Bellator President on June 18th, one of his missions has been to turn the public perception of the number two mixed martial arts promotion. Alvarez had a very public battle with former Bellator Chairman and CEO Bjorn Rebney, along with the power players at Viacom. Former Bellator President Tim Danaher was the one to get a settlement agreement with Alvarez and was the Bellator representative that went to see Alvarez when he pulled out of his trilogy bout with Michael Chandler due to a head injury earlier this year.
Coker has been able to change the perception of Bellator to the fans of the sport already. For instance, I had a caller on my Tuesday show last week tell me that he will now watch Bellator because of Rebney being out and Coker being in. After hearing a fan of the sport say that, it made me think about the Alvarez situation.
Is letting Alvarez out of his contract to go to the UFC, best for the Bellator business? One on side, it would show fighters and managers that the promotion is a more fighter-friendly promotion now. However, do you want to me known as a promotion that will let a fighter out of a contract just because the fighter wants to be in the UFC? If Coker decided to let Alvarez out of his deal, what happens when the next fighter that has one fight left on his contract wants the same thing?
Coker and all the decision makers at Bellator/Viacom have a major decision to make. This decision could be made at any point and could end up being the biggest decision Coker makes as Bellator President.