Former UFC Lightweight Champion and former Bellator MMA Lightweight Champion Eddie Alvarez has had a sordid history with Bjorn Rebney. Which stems from their issues during contract negotiations when Rebney was the CEO of Bellator MMA.
Rebney is a part of the Mixed Martial Arts Athletes Association (MMAAA), surprisingly something that makes Alvarez happy.
“You know how like when a hacker gets caught, they flip him?” Alvarez said on The MMA Hour. “The hacker knows how to get into the system. So the FBI … they tell the hacker, ‘If you don’t teach us everything you know, then we’re gonna lock you up?’ I looked at it like that same way. Here’s a guy who knows every which way, every angle of how to really damage a fighter or their career. Now, if you flip him on the fighters’ side, he can do the complete opposite. I thought it was genius to find a guy who knows all the ins and outs.”
Alvarez hasn’t competed since losing the lightweight title to Conor McGregor at UFC 205. While Alvarez is glad where Rebney is, there was initially some thoughts that the whole thing was a terrible idea.
“Initially, I thought this is a terrible idea, putting him in the forefront of it,” Alvarez said. “But having him on the team, they couldn't have found a better person on the team to fight for the fighters.”
It has been over three years now since the last time Alvarez stepped into a Bellator MMA cage. Rebney also left Bellator nearly three years ago, and was replaced by Scott Coker
