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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Alan Belcher and Michael Bisping will meet on April 27 at UFC 159, finally settling a verbal score that began some time ago. For Belcher, it's a fight he's been trying to get for a long time, and he says all the trash talking between the two has been legitimate dislike, not an attempt to sell their fight.
"Let me go on the record as saying I haven't tried to sell the fight at all – everything between me and Bisping is organic," Belcher said in an interview with MMAjunkie.com. "It's all derived from the years I've been trying to fight him and trying to get what he has. He's always just kind of shoved me off like I don't deserve to be in there with him. So now is my chance to prove it."
"The dude makes more money than most people in the UFC. He's one of the top-paid fighters. He has the UFC behind him – the big contract. I don't know about the big fan base, but he's been promoted to his country and he always gets opportunities to be the main event and make those big paydays. And I want the chance."
The fight comes after both suffered setback losses in the past four months, but Belcher feels like his loss to Yushin Okami in December was more a wake up call, and he feels fully confident in himself coming into this fight.
"It's going to be a tough, grinding fight if I don't just run over him – because I feel like my mind's in this fight," Belcher said. "I haven't felt like this in forever. Back before I had that eye injury, I was starting to get on a roll and I've just been trying to come back from that ever since. I questioned myself if I really, really wanted to do it and make a run at it. So now it's good. I don't really have a choice. I just want to win this fight. I don't care about a title shot. I want to win this fight really bad."
"It's funny how things work sometimes," he continued. "I needed a wake-up call [with the Okami loss]. This isn't an easy sport. I needed to be reminded of what hard work is really about and how hard you have to push yourself. ... My mind's going to be in this one. Win, lose or draw, I'm preparing myself like a mad man. I'm confident.
"I haven't put in all this work to go back to the bottom and work my way back up. That's not going to happen. I'm going to win this fight and continue to be one of the best in the world for the rest of my career."
Penick's Analysis: This is an extremely important fight for the careers of both Bisping and Belcher. The winner will have some semblance of a chance to move back up into the top end of the division and try to work their way to a title fight. The loser will remain firmly stuck in the middle of the pack, and it will be very hard for them to go much further than that given the other losses they've had. For Belcher especially, he needs to redeem himself after his second loss to Okami, and it would be the biggest name win of his career if he can pull it off. Everything's on the line in this one, and he's in a spot where he'll need to leave everything in the cage.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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Frank Hyden - Rich Hansen
Chris Park - Matt Pelkey
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