Something special went down in the main of last night’s (Sat., June 4, 2016) UFC 199 from The Forum in Inglewood, California.
It came in the form of one of, and quite possibly the, biggest comeuppances in UFC history when left-for-the-vultures underdog Michael Bisping knocked out previously touted middleweight champion Luke Rockhold with a pair of perfectly-placed left hooks and a flurry of ground shots in the first round.
Bisping was a late replacement for former champ Chris Weidman, whom Rockhold demolished to steal the belt their UFC 194 match-up, and it was clear that the champion was giving “The Count” little respect after battering and submitting him in their first fight in late 2014.
The always brash and cocksure Rockhold had even gone as far as to predict a “one-of-a-kind” knockout of Bisping, while stating that the last man “The Count” defeated, all-time great former champion Anderson Silva “isn’t on his level” and “never was” during an interview on “UFC Tonight”:
“So Bisping was winning, he was dominating the fight, I respect him, but he’s about to find out that Anderson is not on my level. He never was. And this is a completely different fight. He doesn’t know the jump that I’ve made. It’s a completely different fight.”
It was obviously a bold, lofty claim that was rather unsubstantiated considering Rockhold had yet to defend his 185-pound title while Silva had of course racked up a record-setting 10 straight title defenses in the Octagon. Regardless of if the aging Silva is currently on Rockhold’s level or not, however, the main direct parallel that can be drawn from both former champions’ careers right now is that they undoubtedly lost their titles in shockingly similar fashion.
Silva was knocked out in the second round of his first match against Weidman at UFC 162, a game-changing knockout that appeared to usher in a new era of UFC middleweights, and a fight that “The Spider” still hasn’t fully recovered from – and most likely won’t.
After Rockhold battered and bloodied Weidman to win the belt in the co-main event of December 2015’s UFC 194, many, if not most, thought he would be the UFC’s true heir apparent to the middleweight throne after he finished five straight opponents in dominant fashion.
Obviously he has a much different fighting style opposed to the flashy Silva, but overall the belief was that Rockhold would roll through Bisping and pretty much anyone else at 185 pounds, at least for the time being. Yet like Silva, Rockhold also became of victim of his own cockiness, and while it didn’t manifest in the same form of Silva’s nonstop clowning that lead to his loss against Weidman, you could indeed tell he was fighting overconfidently with his hands at his sides and his chin high up in the air against Bisping.
Like “The Spider,” Rockhold got far too sure of himself, and he paid for it in a big way at UFC 199. He’s already claimed that he’l “kill” Bisping in their seemingly inevitable third match-up, but ultimately his air of invincibility was obviously thrown to the ground and stomped on in Los Angeles last night.
What’s next for Rockhold is unknown, but there’s still little doubt that given his overbearing size and athleticism coupled with his technically refined skillset, he can rebound and once again reach the top of the UFC mountaintop. However, last night showed that Silva was indeed on Rockhold’s level quite a bit more than he thought, and it wasn’t for the reason he might have hoped for.
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