After winning the middleweight championship at UFC 199, Michael Bisping is once again the one fighter with the biggest bullseye on his back.
In an appearance on The MMA Hour this week, the former middleweight champion expressed his disappointment in seeing Bisping as champion, as he finds it difficult to tell people that a fighter he feels can’t hang with the top of the division is the one wearing the belt around his waist.
“There’s a chance he’s beating Dan Henderson, but I don’t think there’s much of a chance he’s beating anybody else in the top-five. But he’s the champ after winning and holding the belt, so that’s definitely surreal. To walk around and people ask me who the champion is in my weight class and I have to say Michael Bisping, it’s a little embarrassing, but that’s just the way it goes.”
He further expanded on the point due to not seeing him as worthy of getting a title shot to begin with.
“I never thought he was championship material, to be honest with you. It was far-fetched for him to get a title shot ever again. He happened to be at the right place, right time when I got injured and he happened to have an opportunity to step up and fight for the belt, and he made it work.”
Weidman is also looking forward to having a big matchup for the inaugural November New York event in Madison Square Garden, and isn’t shy about wanting to get a rematch against the man that dethroned him, Luke Rockhold.
“Whoever they decide to give me, they give me. But if I had to pick, it’d be Luke because I think we’re the two best in the division and I would like to fight the best guy, especially a guy who beat me. I want to get that one back, especially in front of a home crowd at MSG.”
Bisping will be putting his title on the line in a rematch against former PRIDE middleweight and light heavyweight champion and former Strikeforce light heavyweight champion, Dan Henderson at UFC 204. The event takes place on October 8th live from Manchester, England. They originally fought back in 2009 at UFC 100 in what ended with one of the most memorable finishes in MMA history, with Henderson clocking Bisping with his “H-Bomb” for the KO.
About the author
