Michael Bisping is no Conor McGregor fanboy, but he does think the Irishman matches up particularly well with now-former UFC lightweight champion Charles Oliveira.
No, Bisping isn’t calling for a title shot but he can’t help but wonder how a potential matchup between McGregor and Oliveira would play out.
Out of all the possible contenders at 155, Bisping believes ‘The Notorious’ matches up best with ‘Do Bronx’ because the latter has been dropped in his last three fights.
“For McGregor, does he deserve a title fight? No, he doesn’t,” Bisping said on a recent episode of Believe You Me (h/t BJPenn.com). “But he’s the biggest star in the sport and sometimes that just sways in. And I wouldn’t be angry if he got it. Charles would welcome it. That would be a massive fight, [an] absolute blockbuster.”
“I’ve said this before, Charles does get hit,” Bisping continued. “Out of all the matchups that might favor Conor the most, simply because Charles [gets hit]. And everyone knows I’m not kissing McGregor’s ass. I’m far from being a fanboy of McGregor.”
Oliveira does get hit, yes, but so does McGregor. The former UFC two-division champion was dropped against Dustin Poirier at UFC 257 and was almost knocked out by Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 229. Furthermore, McGregor hasn’t KO’d a top-five-ranked fighter in over five years and he appears to have lost a step in the striking department, getting outboxed in back-to-back fights against Poirier.
Oliveira, on the other hand, has finished his last three opponents and is considered one of the most devastating finishers in UFC history. The Brazilian is currently #4 in the UFC men’s pound-for-pound rankings and #1 in the UFC lightweight rankings.
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