UFC 93 Debut – Alan Belcher vs Denis Kang
No offense to Alan Belcher, but when he enters the octagon on January 17th at UFC 93 in Dublin, Ireland, most eyes in the building will be on his opponent, UFC newcomer Denis Kang.
Kang’s sometimes flashy fighting style and tantalizing athletic ability helped land him a four-fight contract with the UFC after fighting in tons of other organizations, and now the half-Korean, half-French middleweight challenger will have to justify it with a win over Belcher.
Kang comes into his UFC 93 fight with Belcher in Dublin as a favorite at -325 to +210.
The Arkansas-born Belcher knows that the fans and media aren’t giving him much of a chance in this fight, but his experience and solid striking ability are both attributes that give him a solid shot of pulling the upset. The muay thai abilities of Belcher are unquestionably strong and his jiu-jitsu is always solid. Belcher comes into the matchup with Kang having won 3 of his last 4 UFC fights. While his last fight against Ed Herman at UFC Fight Night: Diaz vs. Neer was a controversial split decision win, the confidence from his past wins will still be enough to come into his fight against Kang with his head held high.
Kang on the other hand is just 3-3 in his last 6 fights, and he hasn’t faced quite the same caliber of opponents that Belcher did over the same time period. Kang for all his of his hype has not performed up to expectations in recent fights and he will need to come in focused, prepared, and decisive in this fight to beat Belcher. He won’t be able to get by on athletic ability alone as he has in some past fights.
The nerves upon entering the octagon for the first time are also a potential factor that could go against Kang in this one, as it’s quite a different experience from the other organizations that Kang has been in including PRIDE, a league where fighters can relax a little more and not worry about carrying the burden of representing their native fanbases in most cases.
Many former PRIDE fighters have looked unsure of themselves in their first UFC fights and Kang will need to come out and dictate the pace of the fight to win.
While Kang might be able to do just that, he also needs to make sure he doesn’t make any mistakes because Belcher is the kind of seasoned fighter who can take advantage of them.
Kang has the overall advantage going into this fight and is the favorite because of that, but considering all of the unknown factors surrounding him at UFC 93, I’m going to place a bet on Alan Belcher in this one given the excellent odds he’s getting on the betus.com sports books right now.
