Close but no cigar.
On three separate occasions, British poster-boy Michael Bisping has been within reach of a UFC Middleweight Championship opportunity and fell flat on his face. Tonight he entered Ibirapuera Arena in Sao Paulo, Brazil as the odds-on favorite to get his hand raised and finally after 18 trips to the Octagon cement his position as the number-one contender at middleweight.
His opponent, Vitor Belfort is an all or nothing fighter – Either he knocks your block off in the opening round or he loses but tonight he got his first ever second round finish. The fight began with neither man imposing their will before the Brazilian put his British foe on wobbly legs with a head kick as the first frame came to a close.
Sensing that he dodged a bullet, Bisping came in with a sense of confidence that you could see shining off him but it was short lived. When the Manchester native shifted his attention to a body shot he was stumped with a furious head kick. The former UFC Light-Heavyweight Champion wasted no time following up with strikes to put the icing on the cake, potentially beginning a late career resurgence.
While this was a special moment in Brazil, a fantastic end to an otherwise dull night of fighting for the loud and boisterous supporters that screamed their lungs out in support of their hero despite being well into the early hours of the morning it also crumpled up plans of a Bisping-versus-Silva match that has been pondered by UFC officials for years.
Since they put their focus behind the 33-year-old there have been discussions of Silva challenging Bisping on home soils which would be one of the biggest fights in any combat sport to take place in the United Kingdom but as those plans fall by the wayside Bisping might never get his shot at the top prize in the division.
As we look at the 185-pound landscape, viable challengers that the pound-for-pound king hasn’t already bloodied and beaten are few and far between. Let’s take a look at the challengers in the spider’s kingdom.
Chris Weidman:
Sitting atop of that list has to be Chris Weidman. The unbeaten NCAA Division I All-American wrestler has seamlessly transitioned into mixed martial arts and jumped to the top of the middleweight line with back-to-back victories over top contenders Demian Maia and Mark Munoz.
The real issue there is Silva and his management want no part of that fight, and I don’t blame them. Weidman is young, athletic and poses a lot of problems to the champ but most of all he has little name recognition with the general public.
The Matt Serra-Ray Longo trained fighter went from unknown UFC debutant to being ranked third in the world in a year and change and there’s no way they want to put Silva’s legacy as the greatest fighter of all-time against an unknown entity.
Luke Rockhold:
Strikeforce’s middleweight king. The American Kickboxing Academy product hasn’t lost since 2007 and has strung together an impressive run towards the top snatching the 185-pound crown from Ronaldo ‘Jacare’ Souza and defending it on two separate occasions before the UFC’s sister-promotion collapsed.
Similar to Weidman the dilemma here is name recognition. The once beaten 28-year-old has been a headliner on Showtime and both times failed to do incredible business but what works in his favor is that he has a shiny, gold, ten-pound piece of hardware.
Champion-verus-champion is an easy sell, we’ve established that he was the best fighter in the division over in the San Jose-based organization and now the two titlists meet in the Octagon for all the marbles.
Hector Lombard:
Before you grab your torches and pitchforks, hear me out here. While I do not believe that the former Bellator kingpin is a deserving challenger to Silva at this point and time we again are given a fight that is an easy sell.
If the American Top Team product can get past former title-challenger Yushin Okami on March 3 in Japan the door is wide open to book Lombard-versus-Silva. Fact remains that UFC can push that he’s been victorious in 21 of his last 22 outings and he still has an aura as a dangerous contender despite his setback to Tim Boetsch.
Obviously I’m biased as an Australian but if you have adopted Aussie Lombard meeting Silva for the title on Australian soils that would be a shot of adrenaline to this fight community down here and would be an interesting challenger for the champ.
__________________________________________________________________________________________
Follow @justinfauxmma on Twitter and keep up with the latest news by following @MMASucka on Twitter and on Facebook
