Just a few hours after Eddie Alvarez was unconditionally released from his contract with Bellator MMA, the UFC confirmed the signing of Alvarez and announced his debut fight will be a showdown with Donald Cerrone next month in the co-main event at UFC 178.
Long considered one of the best fighters not in the UFC, Alvarez was a two-time lightweight champion in Bellator and has won his last three fights. Cerrone enters the fight riding a wave of momentum, currently on a four-fight winning streak with two wins by knockout and two by submission.
Alvarez said he hopes to earn a shot at the title with a win over "Cowboy."
"I don't want to wait around. I'm here for the title," Alvarez told MMAFighting.com. "I want to make that clear right from the beginning. Don't get me wrong, the UFC is the premier company, the best company in the world. But I'm not here just to be a measuring stick. I'm here for the world title."
With lightweight champion Anthony Pettis scheduled to fight Gilbert Melendez in December, the 155-pound division has been in a sort of limbo for the past year. After defeating Benson Henderson for the title last August, Pettis suffered a knee injury that kept him out of action. Then he and Melendez signed on to be coaches on "The Ultimate Fighter" television series.
When "Showtime" faces off with "El Nino" it will be a year and a half since the lightweight title has been defended, and during that time contenders have emerged creating a logjam at the top of the division. Henderson remains ranked number-one after his impressive win over Rustam Khabilov in June. Russian sensation Khabib Nurmagomedov, who was Cerrone's original opponent before suffering a knee injury, is undefeated with a 22-0 record and has dispatched each of his opponents in impressive fashion.
Now throw Alvarez into the mix. "I want the title and whoever's in front of me at that time, bottom line I'm coming out to destroy them. I'm coming after them," he told UFC.com.
Alvarez and Cerrone are both exciting fighters and their bout is sure to be a barn-burner. An impressive win by either of them is sure to determine who gets the next shot at the lightweight championship.
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