Alvarez: Bellator, Spike and Viacom Lied In Court

Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney found himself in a rather uncomfortable situation this week on The MMA Hour.

While talking about the seemingly never-ending saga between Bellator and Eddie Alvarez, it was brought to Rebney's attention that Alvarez was on the other line, waiting to have a conversation with him live on air.

Prior to the interview, Alvarez tweeted this on his official Twitter account:

@shillhelwani Got some questions for Mrs. Rebney, maybe I'll call in

Rebney, who decided it would resolve nothing if he engaged in a back and forth with his former lightweight champion on air, declined to take the call from "The Silent Assassin" and said he would gladly have a one-on-one private conversation with Eddie in person, instead.

Nevertheless, Bjorn did give his thoughts on the status of the current legal issues between his mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion and Alvarez:

"There's a lot that goes behind it Ariel. You know. You sign a contract with somebody and they pay you a very large amount of money and there are terms in that contract and there is an expectation that you will live up to those terms, just like there was an expectation on Ed's part that we would live up to those terms and pay him the money that we paid him and give him the bonuses we gave him etc. So, when you sign a contract, you don't do it so that at some point someone can just simply say, 'I don't feel like this works for me anymore.' You sign it, you have good attorneys and managers look over it if you're a fighter (and a promoter). Both sides are expected to live up to it. There is not an expectation that you just have a change of heart at some point and you can just walk away from it. It doesn't work like that."

At this point, Rebney was asked if he would be willing to take Alvarez' call to which he denied:

"You know what, I would love to talk to Ed, but, I don't want to talk to Ed in a public forum. Eddie and I have spoken for four years straight in a private forum and he shared things that he wanted to hopefully accomplish with me. Asked me for favors and advice on things and I've done exactly the same for Ed. I don't think that conflict, anymore than you would want to put a conflict between your wife or girlfriend or boyfriend out on an open forum, I don't want to put out a conflict with Ed on an open forum. If Eddie wants to sit down, I will fly him into Los Angeles and I will take him out to lunch or dinner and it will just be he and I and we can talk like men and work something out, but, I don't have a lot of interest in getting on an open forum and having that kind of conflict with Ed, I don't think it would be in any way helpful to try and resolve the situation, I think Eddie and I sitting down alone would be a great way to resolve the situation, but I don't think doing it on a radio show is going to give us much traction."

After Bjorn's interview concluded, Alvarez jumped in to give his thoughts on the matter and talked about some of the proceedings of his court date which ultimately led to his injunction being denied and his inability to fight at UFC 159:

"I just wanted to have a chat. I figured I would get on the line, me and him haven't talked in awhile, there's been a lot of he said/she said and I just wanted to clear everything up. I don't think it's right that he said on air that I have to live up to my end of the bargain, that I have a contract that I am obligated to. I feel like I have fulfilled that contract through and through. I fought everybody they wanted me to fight and what I don't feel is that they are holding up their end of the contract. We're at a standstill, things are trying to get worked out. The biggest thing that's bugging me, is that I went to this court for the injunction and the attorney for Bellator and these people for Viacom and Spike, they're telling these bold-faced lies to the judge. The judge asked if they had a pay-per-view fight lined up for Ed Alvarez, and, the guy waited for a second, he looked to the side and figured out whether he was going to lie or not and then decided, yeah, I am going to lie, because If I don't lie then Ed Alvarez is going to win this injunction. So he tells a judge, ‘We have a fight for him. It's signed and sealed.' Then, Michael Chandler does an interview two days later saying he never heard anything about a fight with Ed Alvarez. I know from inside sources they don't have anything. So, it's frustrating. Because if they were going to match or they knew they could or knew they couldn't, they were going to put me through this either way. It's just not fair. I fought everybody they wanted me to fight. I fought Patricky and Aoki and I could have lost and could've messed my career up. I did my job and if they are going to keep me just compensate me the way I would by another promotion. All I want Bellator to do is match, not just say they matched."

http://www.mmamania.com/2013/2/11/3977556/eddie-alvarez-bjorn-rebney-lawsuit-ufc-viacom-spike-mma

All I could do for eddie is shake my head. Zuffa never put in any guaranteed payment and provisions that Bellator didnt match.

If Eddie was so happy to play fiddle with Zuffa non guarantees then why not Bellators?

Zuffa could just as easily NOT put eddie in a PPV. Eddie lost because ots clear that Bellator matched everything in the Zuffa offer. Bellator is also well within their rights to keep Eddie.

Certification of Dave Meltzer filed in Alvarez-Bellator lawsuit

MMA Fighting and the Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer has filed a certification of UFC PPV numbers in a recent filing in the Eddie Alvarez-Bellator lawsuit. Meltzer, filing on behalf of Alvarez, attests to UFC PPV buy rates and makes an estimate on buy rates featuring GSP and Jon Jones.

Notably, in the January 24, 2013 certification, he testified that cards headlined by GSP average 770K PPV buys excluding UFC 100. Jon Jones’ average between 500-525K buys. His Certification also includes a breakdown of UFC PPV buys over the last 3 years. The premise is that Alvarez would have appeared on a card which headlined GSP or Jones.

In the Certification, he indicates that he is “one of the best, if not the best, source of pay per view buy rates in mixed martial arts.” Meltzer states that he has reviewed the Declaration of Ray Longboard as it relates to Mr. Longboard’s opinion that Alvarez would not have received 200K PPV buys if he were to appear on a UFC PPV. Mr. Longboard’s Declaration was filed in conjunction with Bellator’s opposition brief to Alvarez’s request for a preliminary injunction.

Meltzer states that the UFC has averaged between 450K to 475K PPV buys over the last 3 years. Only twice did the UFC draw 200K or below in those 3 years according to Meltzer.

Meltzer stated that if Alvarez appeared on a PPV with GSP, the buy rate would exceed 680K PPV buys. He stated that a Jones PPV with Alvarez participating would exceed 450K PPV buys.

Meltzer indicates that the “buy rates are an approximations which are calculated from various other indicators, but are generally accepted as accurate throughout the mixed martial arts industry.”

Payout Perspective:

Interesting. In addition to the Certification, Meltzer includes a list of PPV buys (which he lists as “UFC PPV Estimates”) over the past three years. MMA Payout has updated our Bluebook and you can view them here. This is a very interesting turn of events as the Certification opens up the issue of how PPV buys are estimated. Although the Certification does not go into detail about how buy rates are approximated, this method will come out during a deposition and/or other phase of discovery. The question will be whether Mr. Meltzer will divulge his methods and/or sources. This brings up journalistic ethics versus the law. Would a Court require Meltzer to divulge a source and/or would Meltzer risk being in contempt? At this point, Bellator would argue that the methods of Meltzer are undefined and that his opinion of the PPV estimates lack foundation and call for speculation.

The discovery phase of the Alvarez case just got a little more interesting. We will see the extent as to how much Bellator will try to pull back the curtain on PPV buys.


http://mmapayout.com/2013/02/certification-of-dave-meltzer-filed-in-alvarez-bellator-lawsuit/

Bellator matched the guaranteed terms of the contract. Lombard signed a deal with PPV points. His first fight was on PPV. After his loss, his second fight was on FX and his third fight is scheduled for FUEL. No PPV points for those fights. It's a way for Zuffa to save on paying Lombard PPV cut. I like the pay for performance aspect of this but Zuffa needs to guarantee a minimum pay on PPV that can be matched in order for Bellator to match an actual figure. The number of PPVs Eddie will be on and what their buy rates will be are a huge question mark. The original UFC contract offer did not have a guaranteed pay for PPV that Bellator can match. It is all a big guessing game on what Eddie will actually make in the UFC. How can Bellator match that?