Former UFC lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez has revealed that he asked Michael Chandler not to sign with another promotion in the hopes they could secure a trilogy bout.
Prior to signing for the UFC, both Alvarez and Chandler competed in Bellator and held the lightweight world championship. The pair fought on two occasions, trading the title back and forth, and are 1-1.
‘Iron’ won their first meeting back in 2011 via rear-naked choke, which is widely regarded as one of the best fights in Bellator history. ‘The Underground King’ narrowly won the rematch on the judges’ scorecards when the pair ran it back two years later.
In a recent appearance on Ariel Helwani’s The MMA Hour, Alvarez, who is now a free agent, revealed there was a time when both he and Chandler were out of contract and he wanted to offer the trilogy bout to different promotions:
“There’s some really big fights that are possible for me. Nate just got free, I just got free. This rarely ever happens but it happened with me and Mike Chandler at a certain time. I called him and said, ‘Hey man, don’t go sign with anyone. Let’s walk into an office together… That way we’d make a lot more money doing that’… He said it’s a great idea but then I heard he re-signed with Bellator.”
Check out Eddie Alvarez’s comments on The MMA Hour starting from the 9:48 mark below:
Josh Thomson likes the idea of Eddie Alvarez vs. Michael Chandler in trilogy bout
Former UFC fighter Josh Thomson has given his thoughts on Eddie Alvarez’s free-agency after the 38-year-old recently parted ways with ONE Championship.
‘The Underground King’ is reportedly open to the idea of turning to professional boxing but has refused to rule out a return to the UFC and Bellator or a move to PFL.
Both PFL and Bellator are in the market for free-agents and are rumored to have contacted fellow free-agent Nate Diaz following the conclusion of his UFC contract.
Discussing the former UFC lightweight champion on the Weighing In podcast, Thomson shared that he’d be more than willing to see Alvarez and Michael Chandler run it back for a third time:
“I wouldn’t be surprised if he goes back to the UFC. I wouldn’t be surprised if he went back to Bellator either… I wouldn’t be surprised if he comes back [to Bellator] because there’s that tournament… Now if he goes off to the UFC, I’d like to see him and Michael Chandler run it back.”
Catch Josh Thomson discussing Eddie Alvarez below: