Former Bellator lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez is still in the midst of negotiating his next contract, but right now he is playing the waiting game with the UFC.

Alvarez became a free agent following his last fight, a knockout victory over Patricky “Pitbull” Freire, and has since been fielding offers from both his last employer Bellator and a likely offer coming in from the UFC.

Bellator allowed Alvarez to begin his negotiations with the UFC immediately, and once they come back with an offer, they can decide to match and re-sign the former champion or allow him to go on to fight in the Octagon.

The only problem right now is that the UFC still hasn’t made an official offer.

“I talked to Ed Sunday and there’s really no update in terms of us having received an offer from Ed through the UFC, so we don’t have an offer in front of us to match at this point,” Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney told MMAWeekly Radio on Wednesday.

When he finished out his last contract with Bellator, Alvarez made it clear that he wanted to test the waters of free agency, and Rebney was completely understanding of the decision.

“Eddie came to me as a friend and said ‘I wouldn’t be doing myself justice if I didn’t go out and see what they would potentially offer me before making a decision’ and I’ve got respect for that, that makes all the sense in the world,” said Rebney.

“If they make an offer we’ll sit back and analyze it and make a decision in short order whether we’re going to match it.”

However, as of this moment the UFC still hasn’t made Alvarez an official offer, and until they do, Bellator remains in a holding pattern on his future with the promotion.

“Ed wants to see what the UFC would put down on paper in terms of a guarantee, and I would do the same if I were Ed,” Rebney stated. 

“So we’ll see what they offer and then I’ll sit down with our partners at Viacom and Spike and we’ll make a quick determination as to whether we’re going to match that offer, and we’ll figure out, Ed will either be fighting inside of our circle or inside of their Octagon.”

Hopefully the UFC will extend Alvarez an offer soon so that fight fans can see the electric lightweight back inside the cage in the new year.