UFC 83: Houston Alexander Accepts Fight with James Irvin

The UFC will likely return to England for an March 8 event in London, and one potential slugfest is already in the works.

A source close to Houston Alexander (8-2 MMA, 2-1 UFC) today told (www.mmajunkie.com) that the UFC light heavyweight has accepted a fight with James Irvin (13-4 MMA, 3-3 UFC) and is simply awaiting word on whether Irvin’s camp will green-light the bout.

The upcoming event, UFC 83, will be the UFC’s second in London since September. The organization headed to the O2 Arena on Sept. 8 for an event that featured Quinton Jackson’s unanimous-decision victory over Dan Henderson. It was the organization’s first trip to London since July 2003’s “UFC 38: Brawl in the Hall.“

If the Alexander-Irvin fight pans out, it’ll be the second trip to London for Alexander. The Nebraska-based hip-hop DJ and single father of six splashed onto the UFC scene with a quick 48-second knockout of Keith Jardine at UFC 71. He followed up that knockout with an encore performance when he KO’d Alessio Sakara at UFC 75, defeating the Italian in just 61 seconds.

However, Alexander ran into a roadblock at UFC 78, where he suffered a TKO loss to Thiago Silva after his opponent secured the mount position and rained down a series of unanswered punches.

Alexander will look to rebound against hard-hitting Irvin, who most recently fought at UFC 79. There, opponent Luis Cane tagged Irvin with an illegal knee early in the first round. Irvin was knocked out cold and earned a victory via disqualification.

It was Irvin’s first fight since a May UFC 71 event, where the 29-year-old fighter suffered a significant injury when his knee buckled during a loss to Silva. The defeat snapped Irvin’s three-fight streak.

In addition to the possible Alexander-Irvin bout, a fight between the U.K.‘s Michael Bisping and “The Ultimate Fighter 4” cast member Charles McCarthy is also in the works for UFC 83!

source: http://mmajunkie.com/