Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney insists UFC counteroffer was a match 'dollar for dollar' and 'term for term'

Ex-Bellator Lightweight Champion Eddie Alvarez, who satisfied his previous deal late last year, was recently offered a new contract from Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), which was then promptly countered by his former employer.

Rock, meet hard place.

Alvarez today (Jan. 7, 2013) claimed it wasn't a match, comparing the UFC deal to "fine dining" while the Bellator counteroffer was more like "eating at McDonalds." Either way, the "Silent Assassin" has yet to put pen to paper and got sued in the process.

Find out why right here.

Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney, who claims to have "wild respect" for the 155-pound veteran, insists his counteroffer was an exact match to the new one mailed in from ZUFFA, according to comments he made earlier this week (via MMA Weekly).

"Ed went out and got an offer from the UFC, and we took a look at that offer, reviewed it for about eight days, and decided to match it dollar for dollar, deal point for deal point, term for term. We matched every single element of it, word for word. The way that the matching rights work under our agreement, and the UFC agreements work, the good way to look at it is looking at the Ed situation and the Hector (Lombard) situation. In Hector's situation, just like Ed's, he had an ability to go out and get an offer from the UFC. When that offer comes back we have to make a decision - we can either match it dollar for dollar, deal point for deal point, offer for offer, term for term, or we cannot."

Fighters, promoters and lawyers, oh my!

As of now, both sides are claiming the other is off the mark. As incredible as it is, the only person who has been proven correct is UFC President Dana White, who promised the Eddie Alvarez situation would get "ugly" as it unfolded.

Boy, was he right.