Alan Belcher has been BKFC heavyweight champ less than a week, and he has lofty ambitions about the types of fights that could come next.
[autotag]Alan Belcher[/autotag] has been the BKFC heavyweight champion for less than a week, and he has lofty ambitions about the types of fights that could come next.
Belcher, a 15-fight UFC veteran, wrapped up his MMA career after a loss to Michael Bisping in April 2013. But in 2021, he made a comeback with BKFC, then had a boxing match, too. Net yet two years into that comeback, he beat Arnold Adams with a third-round knockout this past Saturday to win the heavyweight belt at BKFC 36.
It may seem like the culmination of why Belcher wanted to get back into a fight to begin with.
“Leaving the sport kind of didn’t sit right with me,” Belcher told MMA Junkie Radio. “After thinking about it for several years, age 36-37, I got to thinking, ‘Now, I think, would be the time, if I’m going to make this decision, let’s do it.’ I decided to fully go for it.”
Now that he’s heavyweight champ, he’ll have as big a target on his back as anyone in BKFC. Then there’s the additional intrigue of new fighters crossing over from MMA and boxing into the bareknuckle game all the time.
Of particular note is former UFC heavyweight champ Francis Ngannou, who is a free agent being courted by just about every promotion out there. Belcher thinks it could be a reality.
“I really feel like there’s going to be some big names, some big-money paydays – hopefully someone in boxing or MMA taking off the gloves and coming in and challenging me for the belt – Francis Ngannou or (Oleksandr) Usyk or Andy Ruiz, Tyson Fury, this type of thing,” Belcher said. “Those are the types of big-name fights I’d like to see happen by the end of 2023 (or) 2024.
“My big prediction is (there’s) going to be outside names come in and shed even more light on the bareknuckle sport and just get more impact and more notoriety to what we’re doing.”
If Ngannou came to BKFC for one of those big paydays, Belcher seems to understand many analysts would presume the ex-UFC champ would have the edge based on his power and size. After all, while Belcher is a heavyweight now, he fought in the UFC at middleweight. Ngannou is considered a different kind of big.
But Belcher doesn’t seem concerned about that at all.
“It’s a matter of not getting hit,” he said. “… I’m strong. I’m not as big as Francis Ngannou, but I have tendon strength. I’ve worked on my punches. I’ve been punching things since I was a kid. I have a nice punch – it’s plenty enough, I promise you, to knock out Francis Ngannou. … I promise you, it is not a problem to knock out someone of that size. They do not have any special power in their head.
“… I don’t believe that Francis Ngannou can knock me out, and I believe I can knock him out. When you’re talking about bareknuckle boxing, that’s the name of the game.”
UFC veteran Alan Belcher had to overcome a pair of knockdowns, but stormed back to knock out Arnold Adams for the BKFC heavyweight title.
It wasn’t easy, but UFC veteran [autotag]Alan Belcher[/autotag] now holds BKFC gold.
Belcher, a 15-fight veteran of the UFC , is now a bareknuckle heavyweight champion after just four fights with the promotion. “The Talent” knocked out Arnold Adams in the third round of the BKFC 26 main event to win the heavyweight title.
The 12-fight event took place at Pontchartrain Convention and Civic Center in New Orleans, and aired on BKFC.tv.
It didn’t take long for the fight to get intense.
Belcher was the aggressor in the initial moments of the fight, but Adams quickly took control of the center of the ring. After trading a few hard punches in close proximity, Belcher was busted open on the top of his head. Although, he didn’t appear worried about the blood as he returned to his stool.
In the second round, Adams continued to let his hands go, landing a crushing right hand to put Belcher down. After making the count, the fight continued, but Belcher touched the canvas again a moment later for a second knockdown. Adams taunted by leaning on the ropes, which would prove to be a premature celebration.
Turning the tides out of nowhere once getting back to his feet, Belcher landed a big punch that knocked Adams to the ground. The champ smiled while on the mat, and made the count. The fight continued into the third.
Belcher didn’t let off the gas, and caught Adams with a hard short uppercut to put him down again. This time, Adams would not beat the count, resulting in a title-winning knockout for Belcher.
Belcher, 38, who also competed in traditional gloved boxing after exiting the UFC, has not tasted defeat since returning to combat sports in 2021. He has now eight straight bouts: four in boxing and four in bareknuckle. Belcher began his pro MMA career in 2004 and made his UFC debut in 2006, where he competed until 2013.
Adams, 37, was attempting to defend his title for the second time, but came up short. He won the championship with a unanimous decision over Joey Beltran, and went on to stop Dillon Cleckler in the second round at BKFC 25.
Full results of BKFC 36 include:
Alan Belcher def. Anthony Adams via knockout – Round 3, 0:55
James Lilley def. Bobby Taylor via TKO (doctor’s stoppage) – Round 3, 2:00
Kaleb Harris def. Brad Kelly via knockout – Round 1, 0:39
Duke Sensley def. Joseph Creer via unanimous decision (50-45, 48-47, 48-47)
Dennis Labruzza def. Stephon Reese via knockout – Round 2, 1:24
Tony Jenkins def. Dillon Winemiller via TKO (referee stoppage) – Round 3, 1:25
Bryce Henry def. Brandon Shavers via knockout – Round 4, 1:53
Andrew Angelcor vs. David Bosnick results in unanimous draw (47-47, 47-47, 47-47)
Check out which veterans of the UFC are in MMA and boxing action this weekend across the globe.
The UFC is back in Las Vegas for UFC Fight Night 220. The event takes place at the UFC Apex, with a light heavyweight tilt between Nikita Krylov and Ryan Spann.
Elsewhere, many other MMA events are taking place that feature familiar names that have competed under the UFC banner.
These 14 veterans of the global MMA leader are competing in MMA boxing this week from Feb. 24-25.
Check out the names and details about their bouts below.
BKFC champion Arnold Adams is not worried about Alan Belcher.
HOLLYWOOD, Fla. – [autotag]Arnold Adams[/autotag] likes what he saw from who’s likely going to be his next title challenger but not enough to be worried.
The BKFC heavyweight champion was impressed by [autotag]Alan Belcher[/autotag]’s latest win inside the ring. Belcher, a former UFC contender, picked up a first-round KO over Frank Tate in the main event of BKFC Fight Night: Jackson 2 earlier this month.
“He did his thing. I kind of had that fight as a tossup,” Adams told MMA Junkie. “Am I threatened by Belcher? Not at all. Am I impressed by his knockout? For sure.
“He overcame a 10-inch, almost 10-inch reach advantage to get the knockout. That says a lot about him, but at the same time, we know who Frank Tate is.”
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Adams expects his next title defense to come against Belcher. Although Belcher is now 3-0 in bare-knuckle boxing and has plenty of experience fighting at an elite level in the UFC, Adams believes his style will be difficult for Belcher to prepare.
“He will get a title shot. As a matter of fact, his next fight and my next fight, we’ll be fighting each other,” Adams said. “But the thing is that with me, no one can prepare for me.
“You can watch all my fights, but in all my fights I show you something different. So what do you prepare for? And when you get in there with me, even though you prepared so much, it’s still 110 percent different. You don’t know what you’re getting from me in a fight.”
Check out these photos from BKFC Fight Night: Jackson 2 in Jackson, Miss., which featured Alan Belcher vs. Frank Tate.
Check out these photos from BKFC Fight Night 2 at the Jackson Convention Complex in Jackson, Miss., which featured a main event bout between Alan Belcher and Frank Tate. (Photos courtesy of BKFC)
Anthony Kim (70) bogeyed the 18th hole to drop into a tie for third after two rounds at the Masters.
Former UFC fighter [autotag]Alan Belcher[/autotag] continues to wreak havoc in bare-knuckle boxing.
Belcher won his first promotional headliner at BKFC Fight Night Jackson 2 when he one-punched fellow heavyweight standout [autotag]Frank Tate[/autotag] for a knockout at 1:21 of Round 1. The event took place Saturday at Jackson Convention Center Complex in Mississippi.
The punch ejected a massive amount of saliva – or some type of liquid – out of Tate’s mouth, which was captured by a ringside videographer.
Check out the slow-motion rocket-launching of liquid in the video below.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CetF4IHATTN/
With the win, Belcher earned himself a BKFC heavyweight title shot against current champion Arnold Adams at an event and date to-be-announced.
Belcher, 38, moves to 3-0 in professional bare-knuckle boxing. Since his retirement from the UFC and MMA competition as a whole in 2013, Belcher also has gone 2-0 in professional boxing. A former UFC middleweight contender, Belcher now competes as a hulking heavyweight.
“I changed things around,” Belcher recently told MMA Junkie. “I changed my ego. I wasn’t a fighter anymore, and I had to be something else. It gives you a different place to look at fighters and fighting, so you can enter back in on your own terms. I thought about it for years, and you’re always going to think about it and regret it, and you don’t want to live your life later with regret.”
The Blue Corner is MMA Junkie’s blog space. We don’t take it overly serious, and neither should you. If you come complaining to us that something you read here is not hard-hitting news, expect to have the previous sentence repeated in ALL CAPS.
Former UFC middleweight contender Alan Belcher wasn’t in a good head space when he left MMA at 29, but he figured things out.
[autotag]Alan Belcher[/autotag] is one of the few fighters to have walked away from MMA while still being very much in his prime.
The former UFC middleweight contender closed out his career at the age of 29 after fighting Michael Bisping, who would go on to become champion, back in 2013 in the co-main event of UFC 159. He lost a technical decision to Bisping that night in New Jersey as he suffered a nasty eye poke that ruled him out of the bout.
Belcher was on a four-fight winning streak and 6-1 before losing decisions against Bisping and Yushin Okami. Although not in ideal circumstances, few saw Belcher’s exit from the sport coming given his age and standing in the division. Yet, for Belcher it was the end.
“My mind wasn’t in a good place before,” Belcher told MMA Junkie. “I got really big really fast, and I wanted to be UFC champ really fast. I wasn’t maybe mature enough to deal with the things – even injuries.
“How do you know when you have an eye injury if you should stop or you should fight? The doctor says, ‘Hey, it’s up to you, but here are the risks.’ You weigh out those risks and who knows what you’re supposed to do.
“I took a few years and really just learned what I was supposed to be doing and what makes me happy and stuff like that. I changed things around, and now I’m an older, wiser, smarter, harder hitting fighter.”
Why Belcher returned to fighting
Alan Belcher (left) at BKFC Jackson.
Belcher stuck to his word and didn’t compete for more than eight years. Then in the spring of last year, it was announced that Belcher signed a multifight contract with BKFC, and he was set to make a return in August. It was a big surprise to many given his long absence from fighting.
Many things changed in Belcher’s life that pushed him toward a comeback.
“I really needed much-needed healing and therapy and things like that,” Belcher said. “So a break was needed, a total reset of what I was, who I was, what I was trying to accomplish in my life, and just focus on other things to realize what I should be doing.
“I changed things around. I changed my ego. I wasn’t a fighter anymore, and I had to be something else. It gives you a different place to look at fighters and fighting, so you can enter back in on your own terms. I thought about it for years, and you’re always going to think about it and regret it, and you don’t want to live your life later with regret.
“I left a lot on the table with my career, I believe. Not to sound too arrogant, but I feel I was one of the best fighters in the world. … You always want to know how far you want to take it. And to me, that’s my job, to show my kids and other people. We’re capable of doing anything we want to in this world, we’re the ones in charge of our reality and manifesting our destiny. Once that became clear to me, I was sitting in a nice position. I was wise, my mental health was good, my physical health was good, and I still have athletic prime left. So those mixtures are really good.”
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With a new mindset and now at heavyweight, Belcher went on to have a successful BKFC debut, defeating combat sports veteran Tony Lopez by unanimous decision.
He followed that up with a debut in boxing in November when he stopped Ryan Shough in the second round in a Mississippi regional promotion. Belcher went back to BKFC in January to pick up his second stoppage win since his return, this time putting away Bobo O’Bannon in the first round of their contest.
Looking ahead, ‘open to anything’
Alan Belcher at BKFC 20 weigh-ins.
Now the 38-year-old Belcher is set to return Saturday in what’s likely going to be a title eliminator against Frank Tate in the main event of BKFC Jackson 2 in Mississippi.
Belcher is focused on defeating Tate and then shifting sights to BKFC champion Arnold Adams. But despite his promising career in bare-knuckle boxing, MMA still remains in the back of Belcher’s mind – and he’s not ruling out a return.
“I’m really open to anything,” Belcher said. “I do know that if I come back to MMA, I’m going to have a lot of new skills from what I’m doing now, mentally being a big part of it.
“In a way, I think I would do better at MMA than probably boxing and bare-knuckle boxing because now I have better hands and just a better way … a more technical, more methodical type of system to fight with and everything. But whatever the payday is, whatever gets me excited and whatever pays the most. To me those are big deals to me. If I’m passionate about it, I might do an MMA fight.
“Let’s say I win this (BKFC heavyweight title, and I get a couple of big boxing paydays, and I’m OK with it. For my own personal bucket list, I would do one MMA fight again, or maybe that all leads to some type of big crossover fight. Hopefully what I would like to see is, once I get the belt is challenge other champions, especially like the free agents that can do it like Francis Ngannou, challenge these guys to bare-knuckle boxing.”
Once a middleweight, Alan Belcher has found success as a boxing heavyweight.
Former UFC middleweight contender [autotag]Alan Belcher[/autotag] is taking off the gloves once again.
Following back-to-back wins in traditional boxing contests, Belcher will step back into the world of bare-knuckle boxing Jan. 29, when he fights [autotag]Bobo O’Bannon[/autotag] at “BKFC Fight Night: Jackson.”
The event streams on Bare Knuckle TV and FITE TV from Jackson Convention Center in Jackson, Miss. The Belcher vs. O’Bannon bout will serve as the co-main event.
Belcher, 37, rejoins BKFC after a successful stint in traditional boxing. At Summit FC 39 in November, Belcher defeated Ryan Shough via second-round TKO. On Dec. 11, Belcher won again by knockout, this time against Matthew Strickland.
“BKFC Fight Night: Jackson” will mark Belcher’s second fight under the promotion’s banner. In August, Belcher defeated legendary combat sports journeyman Tony Lopez via unanimous decision. The bout was Belcher’s first professional competition since his final UFC fight in April 2013.
His opponent, O’Bannon, has become a staple of BKFC events. In four BKFC bouts, O’Bannon has gone 3-1 with wins over UFC alum Mike Kyle, as well as Zachary Calmus and Lewis Rumsey. As he enters the Jan. 29 event, O’Bannon rides a two-fight winning streak.
With the addition, the “BKFC Fight Night: Jackson” lineup includes:
Alan Belcher has transformed into a hulking heavyweight since his MMA career ended in 2013. Watch him knock out his opponent in his pro boxing debut.
Remember [autotag]Alan Belcher[/autotag]?
The UFC middleweight contender from the 2010s who fought the likes of Michael Bisping, Yushin Okami, and others? Yeah, that’s the one.
Fast forward to 2021 and Belcher, like many of his MMA counterparts, has gotten the itch to compete again. Last week, he competed in a boxing match for top Mississippi regional promotion Summit FC – and let me tell you there is nothing “middleweight” about the man any more.
Belcher, 37, is in absolutely freakish shape. Sure, when he competed in the UFC from 2006 to 2013, he wasn’t in bad shape by any means. But now? He’s an absolute monster – a freakishly strong-looking heavyweight.
Here I was, thinking I was above the pack because I moved up a couple weights of dumbbells for my bicep curls over the pandemic. Meanwhile, Belcher goes and adds two weight classes’ worth of bulking muscle to his frame.
I have to respect anyone that puts on a pair of gloves to compete in a professional boxing match – let alone against a hulking 2021 version of Alan Belcher. So shoutout to his opponent [autotag]Ryan Shough[/autotag], who is clearly one tough mofo.
But Nov. 6, there was no stopping Belcher as he finished Shough in Round 2 after a few knockdowns. The match was Belcher’s professional boxing debut.
I’m not sure what Belcher’s aspirations are from here on out, but good for him for truly reinventing himself and starting off with something new. It seems like perhaps there’s a little more in this for him than an old combat sports athlete who can’t help but scratch the competitive itch for sh*ts and gigs – so good for him!
Next time Belcher fights, you bet I’m tuning in!
Watch Alan Belcher’s professional boxing debut in its entirety in the video above – and check out the entire event below, including rising prospect Hannah Guy, who defeated Valerie Loureda earlier this year.
The Blue Corner is MMA Junkie’s blog space. We don’t take it overly serious, and neither should you. If you come complaining to us that something you read here is not hard-hitting news, expect to have the previous sentence repeated in ALL CAPS.
