Belcher agrees to face Akiyama at UFC 100

Published on: 19th March, 2009

Belcher signs up to face Akiyama at UFC 100 | read this item

Belcher signs up to face Akiyama at UFC 100

With the Ultimate Fighting Championship going through the process of booking fights for the next 4 or 5 UFC events to come it appears that a matchup for the milestone UFC 100 has been made official as Alan Belcher has signed the bout agreement to face former DREAM and K-1 Hero’s import Yoshihiro Akiyama, a bout that will be his debut inside the Octagon.

In a new interview with MMAWeekly.com Belcher recently agreed to face Alessio Sakara for the June 13 UFC 99 card from Cologne, Germany, but took the offer to face a big name fighter in Akiyama instead. However; Akiyama who has verbally agreed to the match still has not been determined as to whether or not he signed off on the bout agreement.

Belcher says he jumped at the opportunity to face Akiyama do to the fact that he wants to beat another top ranked Middleweight fighter and get more recognition as a top ten 185 pounder and also managed to throw in a pot shot as well.

“(The UFC) said Alessio Sakara. I said cool. He said cool,” relayed Belcher. “But I think it makes better sense for me to fight a couple other people. The UFC signed Akiyama and that seems like a pretty good fight, something that will move me ahead.

“I’m gonna physically be a lot bigger than him, I think. Especially when he gets off all that damn juice. He’s all bloated up.”

At UFC 93, Belcher robably won the biggets fight of his career when he defeated former PRIDE FC Middleweight contender Denis Kang and wants to continue to knock off big name fighters continuing with Akiyama, but knows that Akiyama is going to be a tough challenge.

“He’s a well-rounded, tough-ass dude,” he continued. “That’s the kind of fights I want to fight. I want to fight the best guys. I still have work to do.”

Akiyama has not competed since the Middleweight grand prix finals at DREAM 6 this past September in a “give me” submission win over Masanori Tonooka, a fighter who had a record of 1-2 and was hand picked by Akiyama himself, but here in the US and the UFC that will not be the case and Akiyama will hopefully take this bout seriously as Belcher is coming to the bout with a big high in confidence.

UFC 100 will be taking place at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada with a possible Welterweight title bout with Georges St-Pierre defending his title against the wrecking machine known as Thiago Alves.

Nelson Rodriguez AKA: Nelo2.0 is the Co - Owner of URDirt.com who is also an Editor and Author on the site. Read more from this author