Report: UFC 77 to Include Kalib Starnes vs. Alan Belcher

Recent American Top Team addition Kalib Starnes (8-1-1 MMA, 2-1 UFC), who delivered Chris Leben a unanimous-decision loss at UFC 71, will return to the Octagon and likely take on Alan Belcher (10-3 MMA, 2-2 UFC) at UFC 77 in Cincinnati.

The fight announcement came from Sherdog.com‘s weekly Canadian MMA column.

UFC 77 takes place Oct. 20 at U.S. Bank Arena in downtown Cincinnati.
Starnes, a cast member from The Ultimate Fighter 3, looked impressive in his win over Leben and pushed his record inside the Octagon to 2-1. He easily disposed of Danny Abbadi at The Ultimate Fighter 3 Finale before suffering a third-round TKO to Yushin Okami at UFC 64.

Starnes later admitted he was hampered by a shoulder injury leading up to the fight.

He’ll now take on Belcher, who recently scored a 53-second guillotine submission of Sean Salmon at UFC 71. Belcher took the fight on just 10-days’ notice (filling in for an injured Eric Schafer), moved from 185 to 205 pounds, and showed no signs of distress.

It was a quick and decisive win for the Belcher, who rebounded nicely from a second-round submission loss (via D’Arce choke) to Kendall Grove at UFC 69. He’ll now move back to 185 pounds to take on Starnes.

Belcher, a Brazilian jiu-jitsu blue belt, made his Octagon debut at UFC 62, where he lost a unanimous decision to Okami. He bounced back with a KO victory over Jorge Santiago at UFC Fight Night 7.

UFC 77 will also feature a main event between current UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva and former champ (and Cincinnati native) Rich Franklin.

i really cant stand either of these and any tuf competitor apart from diaz, i hate watching starnes i always feel i am watching a fighter that will never quite make it