On Thursday afternoon the Ultimate Fighting Championship announced its latest event for this coming September with UFC Fight Night: Battle on the Bayou (aka UFC Fight Night 25). The promotion announced a couple of middleweight bouts for the event, featuring the return of Alan ‘The Talent’ Belcher (16-6) vs. Jason ‘The Athlete’ MacDonald (25-14), and Dongi ‘The Ox’ Yang (10-1) vs. Court ‘The Crusher’ McGee (13-1).
The UFC will hold its first event in the Big Easy since 2000 with Battle on the Bayou, and Dana White today confirmed that verbal agreements are in for two fights on that card.
Alan “The Talent” Belcher will make his long-awaited return to the Octagon in a middleweight showdown with Jason “The Athlete” MacDonald. MacDonald is coming off a submission win over Ryan Jensen at UFC 129; Belcher was riding a two fight win streak when he had to take a year off to recover from eye surgery.
In another middleweight matchup, Dongi “The Ox” Yang and Court “The Crusher” McGee will also go to war in NOLA. The 10-1 Yang recently scored an impressive TKO victory over Rob Kimmons, while 13-1 TUF 11 winner McGee is coming off an exciting submission victory.
UFC Fight Night: Battle on the Bayou is expected to take place on Sept. 17 in New Orleans, Louisiana and will mark the promotions seventh visit to that state, but the first since UFC 37 back in 2002.
Belcher hasn’t seen the inside of the Octagon since May of last year after earning a second round submission win over Patrick Côté at UFC 113. He had been scheduled to headline UFN 22 against Demian Maia but was forced to withdraw due to a detached retina and underwent surgery to repair the eye. Belcher returned to training in the new year and appears to be healthy once again and will face his second straight Canadian opponent. ‘The Talent’ is 4-1 in his last five fights.
MacDonald, no stranger to injury himself, returned to the Octagon at UFC 129 in April after breaking his leg badly at UFC 113 against John Salter. ‘The Athlete’ earned a quick first round submission over Ryan Jensen at the Toronto event, improving his record to 4-1 over his last four fights. This is MacDonald’s second run with the UFC and holds a 6-6 record with the top promotion.
Dongi is a member of the Korean Top Team having last competed in March earning his first win in the UFC by stopping Rob Kimmons by TKO at UFC Live: Sanchez vs. Kampmann. The victory put him at 1-1 in the UFC after suffering his first career loss to Chris Camozzi by split decisoin at UFC 121 last October. That was the first time the South Korean fighter failed to stop an opponent, having stopped every opponent by TKO (nine wins) or by submission (one win).
McGee is “The Ultimate Fighter” season eleven winner, and carries a six fight win streak into his fight with ‘The Ox’. So far McGee is a perfect 2-0 with the UFC having submitted both Kris McCray, at the TUF finale, and Ryan Jensen, at UFC 121 last October. He had been scheduled to face Canadian Jesse Bongfeldt at UFC 131 next month, but was reportedly forced to withdraw due to a knee injury, and was replaced by Chris Weidman.