Amid the aftermath of the UFC 151 cancellation, many questions have arisen and several revelations have been made. When Vitor Belfort was announced to be Jon Jones’ next opponent for UFC 152, it left Alan Belcher without an opponent. Many were left wondering how the UFC was going to arrange the fighters to ensure that all the guys with scheduled bouts were matched. Then, Alan tweeted that he had been injured, and wouldn’t be able to fight anyway. He called out Chris Weidman in that same tweet. Immediately, the wheels in my head started turning. If I could try my hand at matchmaking, that would be one of the ones at the top of the list.
On Sunday, I reached out to Alan Belcher to get some answers regarding his injury, thoughts on Vitor replacing Dan Henderson, and his projected return to action. One thing flew under the radar during the interview that I felt our readers would definitely be interested in. Alan has been putting serious thought into a weight class change. Alan even stated that if he had been healthy, he would have also offered up his services to fill in for Dan Henderson. I have transcribed the portion where Alan discussed his thoughts on moving up to LHW. Catch it after the jump.
Stephie Daniels: Would a healthy Alan Belcher have stepped up and offered to fill in for Dan Henderson?
Alan Belcher: Absolutely. You know, I’m looking for an excuse to move up to 205 anyway. The only thing that’s held me back is having to work my way through the division, so if I could skip ahead and fight a top contender, or fight for the belt, I’ll be the first person to sign up for that. The reason I’m still cutting the weight and being at middleweight is because I’m one of the top fighters in the world, and I’m very close to a title shot. An opportunity like that would be killer, and you can expect something like that in the future.
Stephie Daniels: There are some people out there that feel you could be the guy to dethrone Anderson Silva. If that were to happen, would that be the pinnacle of success to you, or would you like to continue forward and gain the LHW belt also?
Alan Belcher: Yeah. I’ve put some thought into it, and it’s been more realistic lately than before. It’s something that you’ve got to think about, because it’s definitely a realistic thing that can happen. If the match-up happens, and I’m actually standing there in front of him, there’s a really good chance that I could win. It would be the pinnacle of my career to that point, and from there, I’d have to think about it a little bit. We’ll have to see what happens.
You can follow Alan via his Twitter account, @AlanBelcherUFC
About the author
