Alberto Del Rio Talks Heat Up, Likely To Make MMA Return Soon

The rumours around Alberto Del Rio continue to swirl, and it looks as if there are a few more horses in the race to obtain the Mexican pro wrestler's services in the MMA world. Del Rio, real name Jose Rodriguez, and who fought in Pride and other MMA promotions as Dos Caras Jr. up until 2010, is enough of a name thanks to his status as a former WWE champion to have garnered interest by multiple organizations including Bellator, and now, according to Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer, Glory (the kickboxing promotion currently calling Spike TV home) as well. Glory could potentially makes things very interesting, as Glory fighters are able to compete in the MMA realm, and recently, Glory fighter Joe Schilling made a successful debut for Bellator MMA, knocking out Melvin Manhoeff in the process. Whether they allow this for Del Rio would likely be dependant on negotiations between the two parties, but there's a good chance Del Rio would be able to do both. Meanwhile, there's another party in the race for Del Rio's services: Combate Americas, a hispanic MMA organization run in part by UFC founder Campbell McLaren, the start-up's CEO. Combate Americas has an Ultimate Fighter style reality show, a partnership with NBC's latin arm, and presumably, a desire to have one of the biggest names in Mexican MMA and pro wrestling available on the free market. McLaren recently tweeted a photo of himself, Del Rio, and Del Rio's father, Dos Caras Sr. Would the UFC have interest as well? That's a bit of a question mark. They did sign CM Punk, after all, and are looking to break into the Mexican market themselves. However, Del Rio ended his career in MMA, as it stands, on a loss, and the UFC rarely signs fighters coming off a loss (prior to that loss, mind you, he was on a six fight win streak). In this week's Wrestling Observer, Meltzer writes that Del Rio will return to MMA - where is the real question.

It€™s just a question as to which group he goes with. Bellator and Glory (a kickboxing promotion) are two of the groups that have negotiated with him of late. There are others.

The others likely include Combate Americas, and perhaps the World Series of Fighting. With the number of offers he's getting, Del Rio would be hard pressed to ignore a return to the cage, despite currently wrestling with Mexico's AAA, where he serves as heavyweight champion, ROH, and LU, with whom he recently signed. In short, Del Rio looks to be a very busy - but well paid - man.