The big news that everyone found out on Thursday is that I’m fighting Alan Belcher on September 17 in New Orleans. I verbally agreed to the fight a little while ago, but the UFC made it official.
I’m excited for this one. I see people are already writing me off. People are posting on message boards things like the UFC must hate me to give me this fight and that Belcher is going to beat me up.
Here’s the thing with Alan: we’ve seen him look really good in some fights, for example in his win in his last fight against Patrick Cote in Montreal, Cote was a taylor-made opponent for Belcher’s style. Belcher has great Muay Thai and Brazilian jiu-jitsu, but Cote is predominantly a standup fighter which is a good matchup stylistically for Belcher.
I on the other hand could trade with Belcher if I have to but I’m really going to look to take him down and submit him.
We’ve also seen Belcher look not great at all in some fights. He was supposed to walk through Jason Day the first time in Montreal but Day beat him bell-to-bell.
This is a good fight for me. Belcher had a serious injury and his fight career was up in the air, so he was forced to take a step away from fighting and let his eye heal. I’m happy that he’s recovered and ready to fight again, but I like my chances. A win over Belcher puts me back in the mix of things in the middleweight division.
I’m going into Louisiana, which is his backyard, and I’ve had success before going into someone else’s hometown and winning. I fought Joe Doerksen in a five-round main event in Winnipeg. He was the UFC veteran and I was an up-and-comer but I beat him from bell-to-bell, submitting him near the end of the four round.
I’ve had lots of success as the underdog as well. Against Ed Herman, I was brought into the UFC in as a stepping stone for a guy coming off the Ultimate Fighter. He was the favourite to win and although I didn’t think it was an upset, some did.
And then I fought Chris Leben on the New Year’s Eve show in Las Vegas. He was knocking people out here and there and I went in and beat him. I really like that role of the underdog. It takes the pressure off you.
Now for this Saturday’s UFC 130 show in Las Vegas, I was reading that ticket sales are slow, with not a super strong main event, but I’m actually quite interested in it.
Rampage is all bent out of shape saying how he’s going to make Hamill pay for his words. I don’t think that Hamill’s been disrespectful, he just said he wants to fight him, he thinks he’s better and a win against Rampage would be good for his career.
Meanwhile, at this point in his career I think Rampage needs drama to get himself excited for a fight, so he’s created.
That being said, here are my picks:
Matt Hamill vs. Rampage Jackson
If Matt Hamill uses his wrestling he can go out there and pull off what would be considered an upset over Rampage. I think he can take a page out of Rashad Evan's book and put Rampage on his back. If he decides to go out there and just bang it out, it’s going to be a bad night for Hamill. We’ve seen him get better in each fight. I’m going to go with Hamill.
Frank Mir vs. Roy Nelson
I think the semi-main event is interesting and could have been a headliner. And it's similar to the main event: if Nelson goes out and uses his wrestling and takes him down and stays on top, he’s able to win this fight. If he goes out and stands and bangs, Mir has the better standup, the better tools.
Nelson has some knockoutsbut not over guys of Mir’s calibre. We saw that against Junior Dos Santos where he traded shots, but he would have been better served taking it to the ground.
I was listening to a local radio station in Red Deer and Chad Daniels, a local DJ, had a phone interview with Nelson. Nelson said he learned from the Dos Santos fight not to have standup trading wars. I think he’ll have learned his lesson, I’m going with Nelson.
Stefan Struve vs. Travis Browne
Struve has shown us it’s hard to count him out. He takes a licking and keeps on ticking! Browne is a big guy with heavy hands, but I think Struve pulls this one out.
I just think it’s a big step up for Story. He’s been doing well, he does not have the prettiest style and is a bit of a grinder. Alves looked sharp in last fight so I’m picking Thiago.
Brian Stann vs. Jorge Santiago
I’m tossed up on this one a little bit. I haven’t seen a ton of Santiago’s fights. I didn’t see any to be honest when he fought in Japan but I’m aware they were very good against good guys. Stann has been doing well lately, but he hasn't beat many top guys other than Leben, and all of a sudden he’s the next contender. I’m not sold on that yet. If he beats Santiago, then you can sell that to me better. I’m not hating on Stann, but I’m going with Santiago. I think he’ll come over to the UFC make an impact right away.
Miguel Torres vs. Demetrious Johnson
I think this is very similar to the fight Miguel just had against Antonio Banuelos. An opponent much shorter than him who’s predominantly looking for a takedown. It could be almost the exact same fight we just saw, and people would agree that it wasn't very exciting to watch. He could take a page from his last fight and cruise to another three-round win. But what I’m really hoping for is for him to do what he did for his whole WEC career and throw caution to the wind, looking for the exciting finish.
Any time a fighter drops down in weight, like Boetsch is doing (and you’ve read this from me a million times before), it’s a great time to fight him. This could be a good fight if it’s Boetsch’s second or third at middleweight but not now. Grove is going to use his range well and TKO Boetsch or submit him.
