Michael Bisping has just come out victorious in one of the most anticipated fights of the year, defeating Jason Miller via third-round TKO.
The two men coached opposite each other on The Ultimate Fighter 14 and built up a lot of bad blood over the course of the season.
Tonight, Bisping and Miller squashed their rivalry, while putting on a great show for the fans.
Miller came out too aggressive in the early goings of the fight and gassed himself, which Bisping was able to capitalize on, pounding out an exhausted Miller in the third.
After the fight, both competitors were highly complimentary of each other’s performances.
What we’ll remember about this fight
Miller mocking Bisping by taking a knee.
In Bisping’s last fight, he won a highly controversial TKO victory after hitting his opponent, Jorge Rivera, with an illegal knee.
During this evening’s fight, Miller found himself on his knees and practically begged Bisping to throw another ilegal knee at him—likely an attempt to get in Bisping’s head.
It was an entertaining moment and Bisping—shockingly— indulged Miller’s taunts by throwing a high kick at the downed opponent.
The kick missed, but had it landed, it would have been an illegal blow and Bisping could have been disqualified.
What we learned about Jason Miller
He could be successful in the UFC’s middleweight division, but he needs to work on his cardio—big time.
Whether or not Miller gassed tonight because of nerves or overexerting himself cannot be known for sure, but either way, he was gassed by the second round, which is not a good sign.
If Miller could have kept the pace he set in Round 1, he likely would have won this fight.
What we learned about Michael Bisping
When he wants to be, Bisping is a classy guy.
As a fighter, we didn’t see anything from Bisping tonight that we hadn’t seen before, but after the fight, he was unusually complimentary of his opponent.
Bisping gets a bad rap from most fans—not for no reason—but tonight, he was a gentleman after the fight was over, and that was nice to see.
What’s next for Jason Miller
I expect the UFC will keep Miller around because of his enormous popularity with the fans.
Look for the UFC to set Miller up with a mid-level fighter with some name recognition next.
Dan Miller, Cung Le or Tim Boetsch are all possibilities.
What’s next for Michael Bisping
Many suspected that Bisping would face Chael Sonnen next with a win tonight, but it was recently announced that Sonnen would face Mark Munoz instead.
The winner of Vitor Belfort vs. Anthony Johnson would make sense for Bisping’s next fight.
Andrew Barr is a Featured Columnist for BleacherReport.com. For updates on what’s happening in the world of MMA, follow him on Twitter http://twitter.com/#!/AndrewBarr8.
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