Michael Bisping was expected to take on Tim Boetsch at UFC 149 in Calgary, however he was forced off the card due to a knee injury. He spoke with HDNet’s “Inside MMA” about his knee and many other things.
Yeah, left knee. Slightly torn meniscus. I had some loose bodies — two rather large pieces of cartilage floating around inside. I had what they call, ‘fraying of the knee’ inside. It’s general wear and tear. So they went in, repaired the meniscus, removed the loose bodies and cleaned up the knee, somewhat. That was last Wednesday. I’m still in a lot of pain, limping around a lot. But I’m hoping, within a few weeks, I’ll be back in the gym, so I can fight ASAP
He did not let the injury set him back, he continued training and unfortunately found out the hard way that his body just wasn’t ready.
The two loose bodies that they found in there, sometimes they would be fine. But they’d move to a certain area, when I’d try and bend the knee, it would maybe catch under a tendon or something like that. So sometimes it would be completely fine, and other times, my leg would just give way. I went running that morning, and by the time I got to the end of the street, I’d collapsed three times. That’s when I knew, something is severely wrong here.
His surgery has been completed and he is on the mend. Bisping says he is ready to move on from the surgery, get some rehab in and sooner rather than later step back into the octagon.
He feels his next fight should be for the UFC middleweight championship, but not against Anderson Silva – against Chael Sonnen. He lost a very close decision to Sonnen back at UFC on Fox 2, in Chicago, Ill. back in January.
I wanna fight ASAP. Obviously, it depends on the knee and how well it goes. But I’m gonna do everything in my power to ensure that I can train, ASAP, as I said. I’d love to fight on the first of September card. That may be too quick. I know Hector Lombard’s now fighting Tim Boetsch. He’s gonna replace me there. So they’re busy. Chael Sonnen’s fighting Anderson Silva. I think Chael wins that fight. At least I think. The first fight is gonna give him a lot of confidence. The way he fought, handily for four and a half rounds. I think he’s gonna go in there with a lot of confidence and do the same thing, but not get submitted in the last round. After that, Chael’s gonna need someone to challenge him, and I mean, who is there? Vitor Belfort’sinjured. I mean, who are the challengers? I was fighting Chael for the number one contender. Just because I narrowly lost that fight doesn’t mean I go to the back of the pile. So I’m hoping to fight for the title. Hopefully, I’ll get the knee correct, and then they’re gonna need a challenger. I’m here, ready and waiting.
Whether this is the fight for him or not, we will soon find out. Keep it locked to MMASucka to find out the latest on Michael Bisping and thanks to MMAmania for the transcription.
There’s no way Bisping gets a title shot coming off a loss (however close that loss was), when Anderson Silva will be pining for a rematch if he loses. Hmm, what’s more marketable and more logical: Silva/Sonnen III or Sonnen/Bisping II? Besides, Bisping has never even beaten a top-10 middleweight. Kinda hard to justify a title shot.