"I want to be someone so I have some sort of leverage. I don't want to be the next disposable 155-pounder who can be thrown out the window if he has a loss or two. I want to make myself indispensable and make a name for myself before I ever negotiate with a company like [the UFC]... I'm one of the top paid 155ers in the world. I don't know if anybody knows that, but now you do... I can't tell my three kids, 'Hey, daddy's going to take a shot and take a risk and take a paycut and hopefully I make it. It's got to be more than that for me. I got to secure myself and secure my family... I'm going to do the right thing to become No. 1. That's one of my main concern, but it's also to protect my financial security with my family too."

In an interesting quote pulled from mmafighting.com's "The MMA Hour" current Bellator champion, Eddie Alvarez, gives us some rare insight into his thoughts and decision making process. While he remains one of the lone top 10 fighters not signed by ZUFFA he has opted to stick it out with his divisional home of Bellator instead of gain more main stream acceptance and test himself against the best fighters in the world.

In fighting, it appears there are two schools of thought. 1: Fight for the money or 2: Fight for the challenge. It appears that "Mr. Bellator" has opted for option one, which you can't blame him for. It will be interesting to see what his base salary from Bellator actually is and maybe one day they will put on a fight in a disclosure state that will require the release of paydays to fighters. Until that time comes, we can only take Eddie's word for it, that he is indeed one of the top paid guys in his division.