Eddie Alvarez vs. Patricky 'Pitbull' Freire booked for Bellator 76

What could be Eddie Alvarez's final Bellator fight should be a good one.

Bellator Chairman and CEO Bjorn Rebney told announced via Twitter that former lightweight champ Alvarez (23-3 MMA, 7-1 BFC) will meet recent tournament finalist and fellow slugger Patricky "Pitbull" Freire (10-3 MMA, 3-2 BFC) at Bellator 76.

The event takes place Oct. 12 at Caesars Windsor Hotel & Casino in Ontario, Canada.

The night's main card, including Alavarez vs. Freire, airs on MTV2 (and in high-definition on EPIX) following prelims on Spike.com.

MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) passed along news of Alvarez's participation in the event this past week, though his opponent wasn't known at the time.

Alvarez, who lost his belt to Michael Chandler back in November, got back in the win column with a quick TKO of Shinya Aoki at Bellator 66 earlier this year. The Philadelphia-based fighter is 8-1 over his past nine fights, though his upcoming bout is the final one on his Bellator contract. Although the organization has the right to match any offer, UFC officials haven't hid their interest in acquiring the veteran lightweight and could big heavily.

Of course, a loss to Freire would significantly lessen Alvarez's value. However, the hard-hitting Brazilian (whose brother, Patricio Freire, fights for Bellator as a featherweight) is legit threat, though he's just 1-2 in his past three fights. The losses came to Chandler (in a tournament finale) and Lloyd Woodard (in a tourney's opening round earlier this year), though he scored a TKO win over UFC vet Kurt Pellegrino between the two defeats.

http://mmajunkie.com/news/29937/eddie-alvarez-vs-patricky-pitbull-freire-booked-for-bellator-76.mma

Awesome fight. Can't wait. This is a tough fight for Alvarez. If he loses his stock goes way down.

rooting for my fellow puertorican alvarez....but as fans we need eddie out of zuffa...bellator has to step up and sign him to a lucrative deal soon...they cannot afford to loose him, like the lombard situation, it looks bad for them to be loosing champs and top fighters to zuffa...