Former UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping just had a grueling and bloody three-round battle against Georges St-Pierre at UFC 217 early this month. But like the hard-nosed fighter that he is, “The Count” decided to immediately get back in the horse and fight Kelvin Gastelum in Shanghai, China three weeks later.
The result of Saturday’s main event did not go well for Bisping, as he was knocked out by the younger Gastelum in the first round, marking the first two-fight skid in his entire career. But observers such as former UFC heavyweight Brendan Schaub criticized the governing bodies for giving Bisping the green light to fight despite his situation.
“Bisping is still a MW great,” Schaub wrote in Instagram. “There is a reason fighters get suspensions win/lose after fights. Hopefully future fighters can learn from this. Of course every fighter wants to fight, just like every NFL player wants to play after being concussed. That’s what coaches and commissions are for. Love Bisping. Chinese commission can kick rocks tho. It’s 2017 not 1993. Do. Better.”
This sentiment was echoed by long-time UFC analyst Joe Rogan.
“I don’t think you should be allowed to fight three weeks after you have a brutal fight like Michael Bisping did with GSP,” Rogan said on his JRE MMA Show. “He got rocked, he got choked unconscious, and then three weeks later he’s fighting a really dangerous young up-and-coming Kelvin Gastelum? And Kelvin is a beast. He’s got nasty boxing and that’s what he showed in that fight. He hit him with a beautiful straight right jab and a right hand behind it.”
“That kid is just on fire. He’s just on another level right now.”
While Bisping did admit that he was “mentally wounded” from dropping the title to St-Pierre, he said he felt physically fine, which was why he immediately jumped in the opportunity when Anderson Silva’s failed drug test was announced. Rogan, meanwhile, believes it was not such a smart idea.
“You really have to protect the fighter from themselves,” Rogan said. “You really can’t be letting a guy fight three weeks after an absolutely brutal fight like that. It just does not make sense. I don’t think it’s smart.”
“I understand the UFC needed someone to fill in on short notice because Anderson Silva tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs and they did not want to lose the Shanghai main event. So, it turns into an even bigger fight when you’ve got the former middleweight champion right off his loss, three weeks later fighting again? It’s just not smart.”
Bisping has been open about one last fight before hanging it up, and intends to make it happen in March of the coming year, in London.
About the author
