The late John Denver sings about Colorado in his mellow voice, but he could just as easily be singing about Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada,which also has a beautiful scenic view of the majestic Rocky Mountains.
Vancouver is the home of Canadian-raised, Korean-French Mixed Martial Artist and PRIDE FC welterweight grand prix finalist, Denis Kang.
Kang is a BJJ black belt, originally trained by Marcus Soares. Denis is undoubtedly feeling a little high these days after receiving a four fight contract from the UFC.
Kang has definitely been around. He has been involved with PRIDE FC, K1 HEROS, and plenty of small Canadian venues along the way.
Denis will now be making another journey, this time to Dublin, Ireland.
In the not so distant future, Kang is scheduled to fight Alan Belcher at UFC 93. This is an interesting move on the part of the UFC, and this will also be a tough test for Kang.
He's a well-rounded fighter and has the advantage on the ground against Belcher, but like most PRIDE FC imports, I'm worried about Kang's adjustment period to the cage.
Maybe, he's automatically comfortable fighting inside the cage, as he's fought in a cage here in Canada, who knows?
We've seen a lot of PRIDE FC fighters struggle with the ropes being replaced by the octagon fence, and it's a possibility this could be a factor in his debut in Ireland.
Kang is good enough to stand with Belcher, although I wouldn't recommend it.
Belcher showed good take-down defense against Ed Herman, but I'm hoping Kang will be able to get the fight to the ground and work in a submission.
I'm happy that UFC is giving Kang a tough opponent right off-the-bat because I hate when they give some fighters easy wins to start off and then throw them to the lions.
This does nothing but lull them into a false sense of accomplishment. If Kang wins this fight, it will show that he can be a threat in the Middleweight division because Belcher is by no means a "tomato can."
A loss damages Kang a bit because people have high hopes for him; however, the casual fan has no clue who Kang is so they won't really care if he wins or loses.
People on the west coast of Canada know who he is, and here's one dude named Stoker who's from the east coast of Canada who will also be rooting for him.
I'm truly sure, that if Kang gets past his first few fights with wins under his belt, by the time this decade is over the whole world will know who he is.
At age 31 the time is right for him to make waves and then get up on those Rocky Mountains and shout to the world, that another Canadian has made it to the summit of the UFC.
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about 1 month ago
GSP will certainly be happy that another of his training partners is in the UFC. I wonder if this will speed up his going to 185?
about 1 month ago
thnks..hey dee....gsp will dominate..# 2 p4p..see yah..off sat till wed. got your message ..will call you..gxo
about 1 month ago
Good read
Football is all I know but it's really interesting to read about other sports here on B/R, keep em coming :)
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