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Quote:

UFC president Dana White has advised fighters and managers to “think long and hard” before they sign a contract with Bellator.

He made the comment while discussing the court battle that former Bellator lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez is having with the organization. Alvarez is a UFC target and was in line for a deal until Bellator used its contractual ‘match clause’ to match the offer that the UFC had made to him.

Alvarez has taken Bellator to court in the hopes that a judge will declare the offer not to be a match, even though it is word for word identical to the UFC’s. The sticking point is pay-per-view sales and percentages; Bellator has never done pay-per-view and so Alvarez contends that their offer can’t be a match. Even if they do stage a PPV event, it is unlikely to match even average UFC sales.

“There is always going to be a situation where a guy wants to make more money, that’s never going to change. That’s in all of sports. But you had better think long and hard if you are a manager or a fighter and you are about to do a deal with Bellator. Think long and hard about how you negotiate that contract,” White says.

On Friday a court did not give a quick injunction against Bellator, as Alvarez had hoped. Instead the battle drags on. White finds it strange that the court did not decide to take a look at UFC pay-per-view sales and figures in order to make a decision about what a fair value for Alvarez’s contract would be.

“[They should have said] let’s see what’s the lowest pay per view the UFC has ever done [is]. lets see if we can find a low number, a high number and lets see what Eddie Alvarez should be paid,” he says. “Find the middle ground and pay the kid what he should have been paid. There is nothing wrong with this whole situation as long as Eddie Alvarez gets paid what he should be getting paid.”

White also took umbrage at comments made by Bellator representatives recently, to the effect that Bellator’s new home on Spike TV will make the organization into a viable pay-per-view product. “What they are doing is Spike… well, not so much Spike as Viacom, has been saying we built the UFC. No you did not! No you did not, you arrogant pompous jackass,” he snapped.

But he maintains that he doesn’t “think about Bellator at all.”

“There have been other organizations that were supposed to be the next big thing, you’ve heard the battles, you’ve heard me say all the stuff… I swear to god when I say this, I couldn’t care less about Bellator. I actually think that its awesome that they are in the business and that Viacom [are behind them]. Five billion in cash, [Viacom has], spend some of that on MMA.”

Interesting take. Dana obviously isn't happy with Bjorn Rebney at the moment.