Eddie Alvarez Officially Signs with ONE Championship

MMA Free Agent madness struck again as Chatri Sityodtong confirmed on Twitter tonight that Eddie Alvarez has signed an exclusive contract with MMA promotion ONE Championship.  This is big considering that the MMA free agency speculation has died down a lot since the last big shake up to the UFC's roster when the likes of Rory MacDonald, Phil Davis, and Ryan Bader jumped ship to Bellator.  Although I would argue this is a lot bigger considering this is a former champion, with name value, who is still an elite fighter at Lightweight. 




So, as a result, I ask the members of Tapology your thoughts on this and does this signing create a domino effect for more big moves in the future?  Will we see promotions like Bellator, ACB and RIZIN try and get in on this?  How will this impact the whole Khabib Nurmagomedov situation? Does the UFC do anything to keep this to just Alvarez and few low level guys?

While there were some fun fights left for him in the UFC, he was never going to get another title shot so hopefully ONE is paying him a lot of money.

I think Rory was a bigger loss for the UFC than Alvarez is.  It won't cause a domino effect because if the UFC really wanted to keep Alvarez, they could have.  In addition, even though the UFC doesn't necessarily pay as much as they could/should, they still pay better than any other promotion, generally.  

Is there anyone at his weight in ONE who could actually beat him?

* Edited at 10.16.2018, 4:13 AM ET *

Being a gaijin in One FC is a pretty sweet gig.  Decent money, easy wins.

@DrGlaze

I want to say Aoki poses a threat, but not at this stage.  I haven't seen a lot of ONE Championship recently, so I don't know how good Nguyen is. But he was a dual title holder so I have to imagine he has talent.  I'd personally like to see Gafurov go up a weight class and see him and Alvarez fight.

@Fishrat

Aoki was also fighting up two division.

Speaking of talented lightweights, when is Lowen Tynanes coming back?