Thursday, January 8, 2009

Bisping Still Not Ready For Title Shot

Written by: sprawler

Tagged with: anderson silva, Chris Leban, Dan Henderson, light heavyweight division, michael bisping, Michael Bisping title, middleweight division, Patrick Cote, rich franklin, UFC

Sunday, October 19, 2008, 13:06

This news item was posted in UFC, UFC Fighters category and has 4 Comments so far.

Michael Bisping won a unanimous decision against Chris Leban at UFC 89 in a technical stand-up bout. It was almost Forest Griffin-esque; a predominantly boring match that Bisping was able to win with great defense and technical striking. He was backing up almost the whole fight but scored solid points when Chris Leban swung wildly and attacked.

In post fight interviews, Bisping admitted he wasn’t ready for a title shot yet.

You’ve got to earn the right to get a title shot and I probably haven’t done that yet – I don’t think I have. But that’s what I want to do – I want to earn it, I don’t just want to be given it because I’m from the UK.

I want to earn a title shot by beating the best guys in the division and when I get that opportunity, I want to take it with both hands.

I couldn’t agree with him more. I think he’s on his way but he has some more ground to cover and there are still plenty of interesting fights to get him there. Some of those match ups could include: Dan Henderson, Rich Franklin, the winner of Anderson Silva and Patrick Cote, just to name a few.

Bisping has found his home at 185lbs in the middleweight division. He looks leaner and faster and his body type matches his opponents much better. He wasn’t big enough to compete against the elite fighters in the light heavyweight division in the UFC.

Bisping is an up and comer but he needs another 2-3 solid fights at 185lbs before we should be talking about a title shot.

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4 Responses to “Bisping Still Not Ready For Title Shot”

Mat said on Sunday, October 19, 2008, 20:41

I agree. He’s getting there and with 3 to 5 more fights he’ll be ready. I think he has the best shot at beating Silva.
james said on Monday, October 20, 2008, 14:01

He won’t even come close to beating Silva. Leben was the aggressor in that fight, he landed more bombs and even hurt him I believe twice and I was rooting for Bisping so that he would eventually fight Silva. But, he has a long ways to go before he can compete with AS.
MURDERER said on Monday, October 20, 2008, 22:18

The thing is, I think he was basically promised a title shot if he beat Leben, so Bisping will probably be Silva’s next fight. But if they fight Bisping can possibly win the same way that Forrest beat Rampage.
Mat said on Tuesday, October 21, 2008, 7:11

I don’t think he’ll be the next fight. But possibly the one after. For bisping’s sake I hope that’s so.