Bjorn Rebney's efforts to make an Eddie Alvarez-Gilbert Melendez fight have pretty much dried up. Alvarez shouldn't be too broken up about it. The lightweight phenom's ultimate goal should be getting into the UFC, but Rebney realizes he has no chance at co-promotion with the MMA giant. Taking promoters out of the mix, the UFC is where Alvarez (21-2) belongs.
Anyone who didn't believe in Alvarez had to be swayed by his destruction of former UFC lightweight Roger Huerta at Bellator 34. Fanhouse just reported that the full extent of the injuries suffered by Huerta were vicious.
According to Huerta's manager Jeff Clark, the game lightweight suffered broken orbital bones in both eyes during the course of the bout.
"He's a little beaten up but how long he stays out really depends on the breaks," Clark said. "The doctors are looking at it."
Many thought that Huerta was forced to quit after the second round because of an injury to his leg. Alvarez's kicks were so nasty that it forced Huerta to switch from a southpaw to conventional stance just 45 seconds into the fight. Now we know it may have been the right hand that did the most of the damage. Huerta was just too slow to avoid Alvarez's straight rights.
Alvarez, 26, just destroyed a guy who went the distance, and was more than competitive, with two of the UFC's top five lightweights, Gray Maynard and Kenny Florian. UFC lightweight champ Frank Edgar would have his hands full with a guy like Alvarez.
One hitch there, Edgar was at the Huerta fight, rooting for his friend Alvarez. He and Alvarez train together at times. Down the road, Dana White may face another buddy issue when it comes to booking the fight. The first thing he needs to do is start sniffing around to see what the timetable may be on getting Alvarez into the big show.
We're all fans of Bellator, but there's little left for Alvarez to prove with Rebney's promotion. It's nice of the MMA media to ask White about non-UFC fighters like Fedor Emelianenko and Alistair Overeem, but Alvarez is the guy we should be focusing on.
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