Negotiating a contract is a tricky situation. You want something, they want something, and somewhere you try and find a middle ground that makes everyone happy. In some negotiations the fighter may feel they deserve a clause that is another fighter’s contract. Whether it is justified or not this may force the negotiations to come to stand still, or end completely. This is what happened in the Josh Barnett negotiations.

Barnett feels that a clause that is in Eddie Alvarez’s contract should be offered to him. And because of that fact Barnett is not under contract with the UFC. “I was excited to fight JR. I thought he was a very favorable match-up for me, but Zuffa was unwilling to give me something that they gave Eddie Alvarez. No disrespect to Eddie, but I felt it was fair to give it to me as well.” Unfortunately, we don’t know which clause he wants.

The Eddie Alvarez situation has gotten very ugly. It has gone as far as Bellator suing him and Alvarez counter suing. With the fact that it is now in a legal battle the contract that the UFC offered Alvarez has become a part of public record. This allows everyone who wants to see exactly what is in that contract. The UFC offered a $250,000 signing bonus, immediate title shot, guaranteed fight on a Fox event, and Pay-Per-View points.  We can only assume which clause Barnett thinks he deserves.

We do know that compensation is not the issue. As was earlier reported by BloodyElbow.com, Barnett’s manager Leland LeBarre stated, “We agreed on guaranteed compensation. In fact, we never even countered. We accepted their original offer.”

That leaves title shot and PPV points as possible sticking points. Title shot seems a little far-fetched, which means PPV points would be the only logical clause that Barnett and his team feel he deserves. We may never know. Hopefully they can work something out, because adding a fighter of Josh Barnett’s caliber can only strengthen the UFC’s Heavyweight division.

Quotes courtesy of BloodyElbow.com

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