Thursday, October 31, 2013
It’s been a rough year for Eddie Alvarez. It’s also been an educational one, in a depressing sort of way.
Once promised a smooth transition to the UFC, where he’d make loads of money and likely fight for a title in a pay-per-view event with a slice of the sales coming his way in the end, he ended up spending most of his 2013 in court – or, even worse, waiting for his day in it.
All the contract wrangling with Bellator MMA, the dueling lawsuits and the bitter public back-and-forth, yeah, that taught him some things, Alvarez said in a recent phone interview.
“I learned that a lot of these contracts are written up one-sided, just completely one-sided,” Alvarez told MMAjunkie.com. “That’s not a secret. They’re totally one-sided and you don’t have much of a choice. You sign it and fight, or you don’t fight. So you sign it, fight, and shut up.”
Which is, of course, what Alvarez eventually decided to do. Frustrated with a legal system that went “a lot slower than I thought it would,” Alvarez said he finally came to the conclusion that “settling a disagreement by going to court, that’s no way to do it.”
“It’s better to sit down as men and discuss your difference and find a happy medium rather than going to court and going through that slow process,” Alvarez said.
Or at least, it’s better than the alternative, which is not fighting at all, not making any money at all, and watching as your best, most potentially profitable years as a pro athlete slip through your fingers.
When those are the options, “better” starts to take on a different meaning.
It’s the kind of thing that might depress a fight fan who isn’t used to thinking of the sport in terms of the very limited career options that most fighters face. But, at least to the extent that it’s possible, Alvarez seems to have both a healthy and realistic take on the situation.
“I can make the choice to say, ‘Poor me,’ and complain about it, or I can make the choice to accept it and control what I’m able to control,” Alvarez said. “The truth is, I can only fight. I trust my management to make the right decisions and put me in the right position to fight the best guys and get to that number one spot. But really, the business aspect of this sport I don’t like. I don’t think any fighter does, but there’s nothing we can do about it, so there’s no sense in talking about it.”
Unless, that is, you believe that talking about the situation might help change it, and Alvarez doesn’t. Why should he? He tried that already, and look where it got him.
At least he tried, though. And, to hear him tell it, that’s actually more comforting than it sounds, especially now that he’s faced with the possibility that he might never get to find out what he could have accomplished in the UFC.
“I don’t have any regrets, because I tried my best,” Alvarez said. “I really tried my best to get there, you know? I did. It wasn’t like Bellator sent me a contract and I just signed it and said, ‘To hell with the UFC.’ I put my best foot forward trying to get over there and fight for a title. I’m very happy with my efforts to try to get there and do what I thought my fanbase wanted me to do, and do what I felt would get me to that spot. But I can’t have any regrets about what happens from here on out. I just can’t.”
As for how this difficult year has affected his outlook on MMA, Alvarez insists it hasn’t. At least, it hasn’t changed his feelings on what happens inside the cage, even if it’s been a while since he’s had the chance to get in there.
“I learned some things that I’m happy for, but my feelings toward the sport are the same,” Alvarez said. “I love this sport. The business aspect of it, none of us can change.”
For more on Bellator 106, stay tuned to the MMA Rumors section of the site.
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