Eddie Alvarez Confident of New Contract Despite Being a Free Agent Come Saturday
A rematch between two of the premier lightweights take place on Saturday night when former Ultimate Fighting Championship 155-pound champion Eddie Alvarez takes on Dustin Poirier at UFC on Fox 30 at the Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
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The fight against Poirier this weekend marks the last fight of Alvarez’s contract with the UFC, as “The Underground King” previously rejected a contract earlier this year stating it was inadequate and negotiations never took off after that.
At the conclusion of the fight on Saturday night, Alvarez will be a
free agent and able to negotiate with any interested parties. The
34 year-old made a recent appearance on Monday’s edition of “The MMA Hour” and told
host Luke Thomas that he doesn’t believe he’s taking a gamble to
fight on Saturday given his contractual situation.
“I don’t think there’s any reason why not to -- that’s why,” Alvarez said. “I haven’t been given any reason why not to. I guess that’s the best I can say. If I was given enough where I thought, ‘Hey, it’s not worth the risk,’ I’d say, ‘OK, I’m not gonna roll the dice here, this is very good, this is what I feel I’m worth and I’m just gonna keep going and going.’ But I haven’t really been given a good enough offer to not take the risk that I’m willing to take.”
Alvarez says he is confident a deal will eventually get done to match what he believes he’s worth considering he is a former champion and the fact he excites the fans with 23 finishes from his 29 career wins.
“I think we’d get a deal done for sure,” Alvarez said. “We’re just not there yet. I know with the UFC, you never know when you strike a deal. But I’m patient. I’ve learned to be patient, because in the past I’ve gotten ahead of myself and maybe left a lot of money on the table. I don’t know. I think what’s fair is fair and every fighter, it’s a very individual thing, how much each fighter deserves and should get paid. I think I bring a lot of value and when I fight I make this company a lot of money and I make a lot of fans excited. I want to be shared with a little bit more than what I’m being shared with. That’s all.”
When asked if negotiations were far off, Alvarez didn’t think so and was confident his history with the UFC and his involvement in big ticket fights was enough of a selling point to get the contract he is after.
“I don’t believe it’s significant, no,” he said. “Considering how much the company makes, no. It’s peanuts -- it’s a quarter. They’d be flicking me a quarter, considering what they make when I fight. What I’m asking for is not just what I feel I deserve right now. In the past eight fights, I look at who I fought -- co-main and main events, some of the largest cards in UFC history. With the McGregor fight, sell-out crowd, selling out MSG. I’ve been involved in some pretty lucrative and I feel like I should be shared with a little more considering. It is what it is. That’s business, man. That’s just the way it goes sometimes.”
The former champion admitted a win over Poirier would not only propel him back in line for another shot at the lightweight title but also provide him with more bargaining power regarding a new contract.
Come Saturday night, Alvarez knows it’s time to put the business side of his brain on hold as he focuses on the very difficult challenge ahead of him in Poirier.
“Because I know how to separate things,” Alvarez said. “Fighting, they lock a door and I need to be focused for 25 minutes and that’s it. It’s foolish [to say], ‘Oh I have to be focused every single second of the day.’ That’s a very difficult thing to overcome. And I’ve done that when I was young. But I’ve learned when it’s time to be a father, I need to be a father; when it’s time to be a husband, I need to be a husband; when it’s time for me to fight, I need to fight.
“It’s a huge learning thing for me as a person -- not just a fighter -- to separate all of them. I wear a lot of hats and I’m not at the best at it, but I learn every day how to separate one from another and get into state when it’s time.”
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