Lawyers for Bellator MMA and Quinton Jackson are due in court April 2 for a hearing on an injunction filed this past month by the Viacom-owned fight promotion.

Bellator is asking a judge to prevent “Rampage” Jackson from signing with the UFC and fighting Fabio Maldonado next month at UFC 186.

Jackson claims Bellator breached its contract by failing to provide pay-per-view numbers for his fight with Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal at Bellator 120 in May 2014. Bellator counters that it provided the numbers verbally, but declined to reveal the report because it feared Jackson’s rep would release the document and details about his relationship with the promotion to the public.

Additionally, Bellator argues Jackson breached his deal by not providing the promotion an opportunity to match an offer from the UFC. It’s a claim that could ultimately be its strongest argument for keeping the fighter from immediately jumping ship, according to Erik Magraken, a Canada-based lawyer who maintains combatsportslaw.com. Magraken read a copy of Jackson’s contract and provided a breakdown of the potential legal issues at hand.

Jackson’s promotional agreement with Bellator has been obtained by MMAjunkie in the process of ongoing litigation. This document gives insight into the issues the court will need to grapple with in resolving this dispute.

A quick review shows a few twists and turns that will likely play a key role in determining whether Jackson can move on to the UFC or whether Bellator will succeed in obtaining an injunction. Here’s Magraken’s breakdown:

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Jackson alleges that Bellator breached the contract and the breach allows him to terminate the contract. He may be right. Clause 4(a)(2) of the contract requires that “PROMOTER shall deliver to FIGHTER, promptly following PROMOTER’s receipt from its pay-per-view distributors and licensees that telecast the Bout in the PPV Territory, a copy of a summary report of pay-per-view buys in the PPV Territory, which PROMOTER receives from distributors.”

Bellator apparently never provided Jackson with this summary report. It only verbally passed limited information on to Jackson’s manager. Bellator President Scott Coker certified as follows to the Court: “But, shortly after the fight, Kevin Kay, President of Spike TV, told McGann the PPV results and explained to him that based upon these results Jackson was not entitled to a bonus payment under the Agreement.”

When explaining why an actual summary report was not provided on request Coker, states as follows: “McGann also told me to send the summary reports directly to him and that it was his intention to make public all the details of the Jackson/Bellator relationship. Given these statements, and the highly confidential nature of the summary reports, we were concerned that the summary reports would be disclosed by McGann in violation of the Agreement’s confidentiality provisions.”

I have reviewed the confidentiality provisions, and they are not drafted to specifically require the PPV summary reports to be kept confidential. The clause certainly could have been drafted more specifically. Even if this information is captured by the confidentiality clause, a threat to expose “all the details of the Jackson/Bellator relationship” likely does not excuse Bellator from not fulfilling its contractual obligation. In any event, the court will have to address this issue.

From there, Jackson relied on Clause 23(F) of the Agreement to terminate the agreement, the relevant parts of which reads as follows:

“In the event that FIGHTER believes in good faith that PROMOTER has breached this Agreement … PROMOTER shall have a period of forty-five (45) days after receipt of written notice of such breach from FIGHTER in which to cure such breach. … If PROMOTER fails to cure such breach within the forty-five (45) day period, then FIGHTER shall have the option to terminate this Agreement, by so notifying in writing PROMOTER, at the conclusion of the forty-five (45) day cure period.”

Apparently notice was given by Jackson and the breach was not cured. So far, so good for Jackson. He then exercised his termination rights and moved on. There is, however, a second barrier that Jackson may not be able to overcome.

The contract also contained a matching clause for Bellator, and this right appears to survive termination.

Clause 24(b) reads as follows:

“If this agreement is terminated for any reason, FIGHTER is thereafter permitted to negotiate with other promotional entities.

i) For a period of twelve (12) months following the termination of this Agreement, however, PROMOTER shall retain the exclusive right to match the material terms of any agreement offered to FIGHTER by any other promotional activity.”

So if Jackson was within his rights to terminate the contract, its plain language gives Bellator matching rights which survive termination. Unless a court is prepared to interpret that this clause also died on termination, which goes against its plain wording, then Bellator appears to have the right to match any other promotion’s offer to Jackson, thereby keeping him with its organization.

For more on UFC 186, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.