Alan Belcher still would have fought Vitor Belfort with a fractured spine

UFC Middleweight contender Alan Belcher recently spoke to the MMA Hour about his seemingly brutal injury, training with a fractured spine in order to face Vitor Belfort in a UFC 153 showdown. The injury was affecting Belcher for a while now, and has spoken to a doctor who told him he had been pushing his body to the limit. The news of Belfort moving to UFC 152 to face Jon Jones came as a blessing as sorts to Belcher, who spoke up about the situation:

“That’s the news I needed to make this decision. If you’re not going to be 100 percent, don’t do it. Don’t fight with injuries, don’t fight out of shape, and never give up. That’s it, that’s the three reasons that I’ll never lose a fight if I can help it. I fought with some injuries before but at this time, at the level that I”m at, it’s not worth it man. I would have only made it worse.”

Belcher said he would have fought Belfort had the fight went on as planned, even though he knew it was the wrong thing to do. He explained it was hard to be patient, and that the ego gets in the way in these situations. Belcher is looking to fight more as he attempts to claim the UFC Middleweight throne:

“If I want to be the champ, I gotta be a little bit more active and fight more than once a year. That’s why I was being a little bit more impatient, I wanted to fight no matter what. But you know, sometimes no matter how bad you want it, it just isn’t working out for you. My patience has definitely been tested the past few years. I’m still a young man, I’m still getting better every day.”

Belcher comes off of a convincing victory over Rousimar Palhares, and hopes to fight surging contender Chris Weidman to prove he is the rightful contender to Anderson Silva‘s Middleweight throne:

“I mean to me it makes the most sense. I’m comfortable with the fight, I feel he’s a challenge for me and he’s a top contender, he’s one of the only people I would really feel that it’s the right fight for me in my career right now as far as competition level and ranking-wise. Weidman, he’s definitely a great competitor, so, we’re both in the same kind of class and same kind of rankings, and it makes sense to me.”

Will a healthy Alan Belcher make his way to the top?