Eddie Alvarez will be making his ONE Championship debut at the end of the month at ONE Championship: A New Era on March 31st, taking on Timofey Nastyukhin at the event. This will be Alvarez’s first fight outside of the UFC in over five years. Alvarez acknowledge prior to his last UFC fight against Dustin Poirier that he was taking a gamble on himself by fighting out his contract instead of holding out for a new contract, and strictly from a financial standpoint, the gamble seems to have paid off for The King of the Underground.
“We’re prizefighters. We want to get the biggest prize possible and find out what we’re worth,” Alvarez told Helen Yee Sports in response to why he opted to sign with ONE Championship. “And number two, I’ve been at the top of the heap. For every single promotion I ever fought for, I won the world titles. So ONE Championship, in my eyes, this will be the future of MMA. It’s gonna be the mecca. And I wanna hold that world title.”
Eddie Alvarez went on to describe his exit from the UFC and clarified that his entry into ONE Championship did not come as a result of a contentious relationship with the UFC and that the promotion did, in fact, try to keep the Philadelphia slugger.
“We still have a very good rapport,” Alvarez said of himself and the UFC. “I think they did their best. They did their best. They came up significantly more than what I’ve imagined in my mind, and I’m happy they did. But the truth is, everybody has their price. And the market says what you’re worth. And fighters need to test free agency to truly find out what they’re worth.”’
One fighter of note who has already followed Alvarez’s advice all the way to the same new home is Sage Northcutt, who will be making his ONE Championship debut on May 17.
Do you believe more fighters will begin to follow in the footsteps of Eddie Alvarez and Sage Northcutt and test free agency more aggressively?
