Despite a Career-Threatening Injury, Alan Belcher Returns in 2011

Along with many in the MMA community, I was incredibly disheartened when news broke several months ago that rising ufc star Alan Belcher would be sitting on the sidelines for the foreseeable future with a career-threatening eye injury. Perhaps the saddest thing about this entire situation was the fact that Belcher’s last fight before the eye injury that could have ended his career was by far his most brilliant performance: a two-round thrashing of Patrick Cote that ended with a massive Piledriver straight out of a pro wrestling organization. But note the “could have” in that last sentence: according to a new report, Belcher is going to be hitting the comeback trail in 2011, and I personally couldn’t be happier.

Here are the highlights, straight from the man himself and taken from an interview Belcher recently did with MMA Weekly: “[My doctors] weren’t really sure [if I would ever fight again]… They thought I would get a lot of vision back and I might probably be able to fight again if I wanted to take the risk, but they weren’t really sure… Now we’re at where we’re at now, it seems everything is healing… I can probably be back doing contact as early as January… I’ll return strong and win and be right back where I was, and maybe even higher.”

Now, I wouldn’t call myself an Alan Belcher super-fan, but as I’ve said multiple times… everybody loves a comeback. I’d be loving this one, and be honest, you’d be loving it too. Alan Belcher is a no-nonsense kind of fighter, and he was getting better on a per-fight basis before he had this brush with disaster. There’s a reason Belcher was going to be headlining a Fight Night card after the Cote fight: he’s a very entertaining fighter and could be a serious championship contender in the near future.

It remains to be seen how the dreaded “ring rust” factor will hold Alan Belcher back in his return, because I think it’s been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that ring rust is very real and can hinder virtually any professional fighter that returns from a prolonged absence. Still, if anyone has a shot at becoming the rare exception rather than the often-repeated rule, it’s definitely a fighter like Alan Belcher. After all he’s gone through, I’d certainly be pulling for him to win his return no matter who he’s put up against.

Perhaps the best thing about this return is the fact that there are so many people Belcher could face, and that Belcher’s return would add another good Middleweight to a division that is rapidly recovering from Anderson Silva’s famed reign of destruction. I’d love to see Belcher take on people like Chris Leben, Wanderlei Silva, Michael Bisping, Yoshihiro Akiyama, Demian Maia, and Rousimar Palhares. I’d even enjoy seeing him tangle with championship-level talent like Vitor Belfort and Nate Marquardt.

If Belcher hits the comeback trail hard, he’s got a great shot at picking up his career where it left off, with him hovering around title contention and getting better and better opponents on a fight-by-fight basis. I wish Alan Belcher all the best, and am really looking forward to the return of “The Talent” in 2011. And what about you, fans and friends? What are your predictions for Belcher’s return, in regards to future opponents as well as future successes or failures?