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Former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) middleweight champion, Michael Bisping, transitioned from fighter to fan roughly one year back after officially (but not prematurely) retiring from the sport of mixed martial arts (MMA).
And now that he’s spending most of his cage fighting days as analyst and color commentator, “The Count” is hoping the promotion will put an end to all the silly “super fights” that capture the public’s imagination, but do little more than wreak havoc on the divisions.
“I’m sick of all this talk of super fights, if I’m honest,” Bisping said on his official podcast (transcribed by Tom Taylor). “I want to see the champions defending the belts. All of this jumping around… I think last year and the year before, it all got a little silly.”
Conor McGregor, Daniel Cormier, Henry Cejudo, and Amanda Nunes have all captured championship titles in two different weight classes and all but “Lioness” have been forced to give them up to keep the assembly lines moving.
“I feel like the UFC aren’t going to be too quick to make those super fights anymore,” Bisping continued. “Whilst they do capture the imagination of the public, [UFC is] just stripping Henry Cejudo of the 125 [title]. The only real double-champ that’s left now is Amanda Nunes, and even her, she’s having trouble finding challenges at 145. I feel the only reason she hasn’t been stripped yet is there isn’t anyone at ’45 to take her place.”
Bisping knows a thing or two about super fights, having coughed up his 185-pound crown to former welterweight champion, Georges St-Pierre, back in late 2017. “Rush” vacated his strap instead of defending it and once again, the division was left in limbo.
How much longer Nunes can hold on to her featherweight title remains to be seen.