UFC on Fox 3: Why Alan Belcher or Rousimar Palhares Deserves a Title Shot

This Saturday, the UFC will broadcast its third-ever “UFC on FOX” card, with a main event pitting top lightweight fighters Nate Diaz and Jim Miller against each other.

But also on the four-fight main card is an interesting, and possibly-pivotal, middleweight encounter between Rousimar Palhares and Alan Belcher.

Right now it’s just a rumor that the winner of this bout may be receiving a title shot, but I think that whoever wins does in fact deserve to challenge either Anderson Silva or Chael Sonnen for the UFC middleweight championship.

Giving the winner of Palhares/Belcher a title shot makes a lot of sense for two major reasons. First off, both Palhares and Belcher have an interesting back-story that has allowed both fighters to remain popular and often talked-of, in addition to seeing their fan bases grow on a consistent basis.

Second reason: they’re both damn good fighters.

For Paul Harris, most of the hype and interest comes from two simple facts: he loves ripping people’s heels off, and he may be a little crazy.

Both facts are undeniable: 10 of Palhares’ fourteen wins have been by submission, and six of those have been by heel hook. He has also acted bizarrely in several of his major fights, from Jim Miller to Tomasz Drwal to (perhaps most famously) Nate Marquardt.

Palhares even has his fair share of controversy outside of the UFC: his actions at ADCC 2011 lit up the Internet with discussion and speculation (mostly about the mental health of Palhares) for weeks.

Then you have Alan Belcher, who is finally coming into his own as an elite UFC middleweight. It all started at UFC 100, when Belcher lost a very controversial decision that had UFC announcer Joe Rogan famously saying “Alan Belcher got robbed.”

Then you had his fight at UFC 113, when he spectacularly nailed a Piledriver on Patrick Cote before pounding him out.

Then he nearly lost an eye.

After undergoing emergency eye surgery, Belcher sat on the sidelines for over a year. Recently, he returned in dominating fashion, making quick work of Jason McDonald at a “Fight Night” event back in September.

Currently, both Palhares and Belcher are on three-fight win-streaks. Palhares has one decision victory over Dan Miller sandwiched between two submission victories, while Belcher had finished his last two opponents before his injury and has finished his only opponent since returning from injury.

I can already hear the cynics, though: Belcher and Palhares haven’t beaten the cream of the crop. And honestly, you could argue that.

I won’t deny that Mike Massenzio, Jason MacDonald, Wilson Gouveia, and Dave Branch don’t really scream “potential title challengers.” Dan Miller is more of a mid-tier gatekeeper, and although Patrick Cote has challenged for the UFC middleweight championship in the past, he had missed over a year by the time he fought Belcher and would in fact be out of the UFC one short fight later.

But in addition to my two core arguments—their interesting backstories and their penchant for putting on very entertaining performances—my response to that dissenting opinion is just as simple.

If not them, who?

The obvious choice is Vitor Belfort. As a fan of “The Phenom,” I can admit that he probably deserves a title shot more if he’s able to beat Wanderlei Silva.

But I’m not so sure that Wanderlei deserves a shot at the belt more than Belcher or Palhares if he’s able to beat Vitor. And other than that big matchup, I really can’t think of another impending middleweight scrap that really screams “contender eliminator.”

So, at the end of the day, I think it makes sense to give Belcher or Palhares a title shot. I can even imagine several situations where this opinion becomes commonplace: if this fight ends in amazing fashion and Silva/Belfort ends up being boring, if Belfort wins but gets injured, etc.

As a fan of both men, I think this fight is going to impress a lot of people and may end up becoming a bonafide “sleeper hit.”