One week away from their PPV debut, Bellator announced today that Lightweight Champion Eddie Alvarez suffered an injury while training which will force him out of next week’s PPV main-event.
Bellator Lightweight Champion Eddie Alvarez has suffered a head injury before his scheduled May 17th Lightweight Title fight with Michael Chandler and has been removed from the fight card. In his place, Lightweight Tournament winner Will Brooks will now face Chandler for the Interim Lightweight World Title. The nights headlined by the Light Heavyweight Tournament Final between MMA icon Rampage Jackson and King Mo, along with Tito Ortiz battling Middleweight World Champion Alexander Shlemenko, all on Pay-Per-View.
“Injuries are part of MMA, but so are great opportunities, as we move forward with an incredible, must see night of fights this Saturday on Pay-Per-View,” Bellator Chairman & CEO Bjorn Rebney said. “This is a great card for MMA fans with huge value highlighted as Rampage Jackson is finally getting the opportunity to battle King Mo for a shot at the World Title, one of the most exciting young phenoms in MMA, Will Brooks getting a title shot against Michael Chandler, and of course Tito Ortiz in a crazy fight against Alexander Shlemenko. I can’t wait for this night of fights on May 17th.”
“This has been a crazy few days with a wide range of emotion, but with Will now in the picture, I know we are going to have fireworks on May 17th,” Chandler said. “I wish Eddie the best, and I’m looking forward to finishing our trilogy, but now I’m focused on the task at hand.”
“I’ve always said I’m ready to fight anyone with hesitation, and now this is my chance to back that up,” Brooks said. “I want that belt around my waist more than anyone, and I’m ready. This is just a great opportunity that I’m ready for. I’m ready to jump into the fire.”
The full fight card for the Bellator Pay-Per-View on May 17th is below:
Bellator Pay-Per-View Fight Card:
Bellator Light Heavyweight Tournament Final: Rampage Jackson (34-11) vs. King Mo (12-3)
Bellator Interim Lightweight World Title Fight: Michael Chandler (12-1) vs. Will Brooks (13-1)
Bellator Light Heavyweight Fight: Alexander Shlemenko (50-7) vs. Tito Ortiz (16-11-1)
Bellator Heavyweight Tournament Final: Blagoi Ivanov (11-0) vs. Alexander Volkov (20-4)
Bellator Welterweight Fight: Rickey Rainey (7-2) vs. Michael Page (5-0)
Bellator Spike TV Fight Card:
Bellator Heavyweight Fight: Cheick Kongo (20-9) vs. Eric Smith (6-1-1)
Bellator Featherweight Fight: Shahbulat Shamhalaev (12-2) vs. Fabricio Guerreiro (19-3)
Bellator Featherweight Fight: Goiti Yamauchi (16-2) vs. Mike Richman (16-4)
Bellator Spike.com Fight Card:
Bellator Featherweight Fight: Zach Underwood (12-5) vs. Austin Lyons (10-3)
Bellator Heavyweight Fight: Justin Frazier (6-1) vs. Mike Wessel (13-7)
Bellator Welterweight Fight: Ben Brewer (6-1) vs. Andy Uhrich (8-4)
Bellator Welterweight Fight: Anthony Lemon (2-3) vs. Codie Shuffield (4-0)
Bellator Bantamweight Fight: Cortez Phelia (2-0) vs. Brain Hall (7-2)
Payout Perspective:
This has to feel like deja vu for Bellator, as an injury to Tito Ortiz forced Bellator to move their first attempt at running a PPV event to Spike TV last November. Although this time around, Bellator has chosen to keep the event as a PPV instead of moving it to Spike TV. Rampage Jackson vs King Mo will be the new main event while Michael Chandler will stay on the card in the co-main event as he takes on Alvarez’s replacement, Will Brooks. The third bout of the PPV event has Bellator Middleweight champion Shlemenko versus ex UFC pioneer Tito Ortiz.
One has to wonder why Bellator is keeping this card as a PPV this time around, but you have to think that cancelling two PPV events in a row would not be very good business for anyone involved in this matter. In fact, it appears that it’s not really an option for Bellator this time around. Rampage Jackson and Tito Ortiz ore two big free agents signed recently by Bellator and both have PPV revenue tied to their contract, which may in fact be a prominent reason why the event will go on.
Either way, PPV has seen a huge drop for MMA in 2014 without it’s two biggest draws from last year, Anderson Silva and Georges St. Pierre. Even if Alvarez would have stayed in the main-event, most MMA insiders predicted a rough road for Bellator’s PPV debut. The Alvarez injury one week away from the event just makes it that much more difficult to convince MMA fans to spend $50 in a market that has been saturated by the UFC over the past several years.
hello, do you know how it works with Alvarez’ contract? he has to fight on a ppv, right? now Bellator set up one and it got cancelled because of him – did they fulfill their obligation if the PPV happens anyway?
michael,
The PPV did not get canceled and they are going forward with it. From everything that I’ve heard, Alvarez will still be a Bellator fighter after the PPV event this week. We will have to follow up on this story further in the next few weeks.
MMA has to have the worst and most idiotic training methods of any professional sport out there.
Hello Jose,
thanks for your reply! I got the post wrong, I meant: now Bellator has provided a ppv fight as required, but *the fight* won’t happen but it’s Eddie’s fault. Have they fulfilled theirobligation to provide a ppv fight?