Eddie Alvarez was scheduled to make his EliteXC debut on the upcoming Nov. 8 card, where he was set to fight Nick Diaz for the 160-pound title (he previously fought on a ShoXC card).

Alvarez, who has a 15-1 career record, is considered by most MMA news sites to be one of the top five lightweights in the world, but is not well known in the U.S. because he's spent most of his career competing abroad, including in the Japan-based DREAM organization.

He signed with EliteXC in hopes of showcasing himself to American fans, and now won't have that chance. His contract is semi-exclusive in the U.S., with only one other promotion able to feature him: Adrenaline. That promotion, suffering from a weak economy like many others, has no plans of running a show anytime soon, meaning Alvarez will most likely have to return overseas for his next match.

"I'm pretty spread out in terms of my contract, and that leaves me flexibility if things like this happen," said Alvarez. "It's unfortunate for all the fighters who put all their eggs in one basket. You can't do that in this business."

AlvarezFight.com Eddie Alvarez has options overseas, but other fighters aren't so lucky.

Alvarez said he learned his lesson during a previous stop in BodogFight, another company that spent huge amounts of cash but did not capture the market share necessary to continue promoting.

"There are other fighters who need to fight [Nov. 8] to pay their bills," said Alvarez, whose won five straight fights, including four in 2008 alone. "I was fortunate to get a lot of fights early in the year, save some money to be comfortable and not worry about needing fights to pay my bills. For me, it's not as big as a blow as for some other guys."

MMA Agents is one of the larger agencies in the game, and had several EliteXC fighters affected by the company shuttering its doors.

Up until yesterday's bombshell, the agency was still dealing with EliteXC in trying to put together a Nov. 8 fight for its heavyweight Brett Rogers, in which he would fight Affliction’s Paul Buentello.

"It was a surprise, but the writing was on the wall," said agent Julian Gregorio. "It was like a sinking ship, but they thought they'd get bailed out and bought out by Showtime, and that everything that was wrong would be re-evaluated. It just never got to that point, I guess."

Alvarez says that EliteXC head of fight operations Jeremy Lappen called him to tell him the event outlook looked bleak, but that ProElite was willing to do anything to stage the Nov. 8 show, including having staff members working for free. He said he’d get back to him later in the afternoon. When a follow-up call never came, Alvarez realized the company was dead.

Many fighters have hopes that the remaining brands like UFC, Strikeforce and Affliction will choose to add them and boost their ranks, but the financial realities of our current time make it unlikely that every one of them will find a new home soon.

"A lot of fighters have been through things like this before," Alvarez said. "Some things people consider setbacks aren't necessarily setbacks. Sometimes they are blessings in disguise. You can't get down, you can't focus on it too much. The sad truth is that that's the fight business."

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