Eddie Alvarez will fight at Dream 12 vs. Katsunori Kikuno

The Japanese fight promotion, Dream, announced that Eddie Alvarez (18-2) will fight Katsunori Kikuno (12-1-1) at Dream 12 on October 25th.

Katsunori Kikuno is the current DEEP lightweight champion. Kikuno is riding a nine fight win streak and hasn't lost since 2006.

Alvarez's last fight was in the Bellator lightweight finals where he defeated Toby Imada for the Bellator lightweight title.

Eddie Alvarez's inclusion in Dream 12 makes him the second Bellator champion to fight outside of the organization this fall. Earlier this month it was announced that Bellator middleweight champion, Hector Lombard, will fight Kalib Starnes at a CFC event this October.

Lombard and Alvarez are arguably Bellator's two best fighters and with their second season delayed until early 2010 it is interesting to see both fighters fight in meaningful bouts outside of the United States; especially since it became public that Bellator was looking for contenders to challenge their newly crowned champions. Don't both of these fights qualify or was Bellator unable to secure the challengers?

Could this be a bad sign for Bellator's second season? After all we still don't know what the format will be for season two. On the other hand this may be the organization allowing their fighters to earn a paycheck during the off-season.