Michael Bisping thinks in his fighting prime he could have beaten the current UFC middleweight champion, Israel Adesanya.
‘The Count’ was the nearly-man of the UFC’s 185lb division for most of his career before he knocked out Luke Rockhold in 2016 to become world champion.
Bisping went on to defend the middleweight strap by avenging his most famous defeat against Dan Henderson in front of a native crowd before cashing out of championship life with a mega-money match-up against Georges St-Pierre.
The British MMA pioneer has since retired from the sport but remains relevant through his role on the UFC broadcast team as well as his various other MMA-related ventures.
Since Bisping’s departure from the sport, Adesanya has started to dominate at middleweight. ‘The Last Stylebender’ sensationally dethroned Robert Whittaker back in 2019 and has since defended the belt on three occasions.
The New Zealander has almost cleaned out the division and is now set to rematch Whittaker, who has won three straights since suffering defeat at the hands of Adesanya.
Michael Bisping Fancies His Chances Against Any Man
Adesanya is now widely regarded as the second-best middleweight of all time, only trailing Anderson Silva who made 10 successful defences of the 185lb belt.
Despite that, Bisping thinks he could’ve beaten Adesanya when he was in his prime. The 42-year-old notes that there’s not a fighter alive who he thinks he couldn’t beat with the right preparation.
“I do think I could have done it. In my prime, yeah,” Bisping said on his YouTube channel. “But that’s what fighters are supposed to say. I’ve said this before. If a fighter says ‘No,’ then they probably wouldn’t be a fighter in the first place. Or they could be realistic, you know. But, I never saw a man that I don’t think I could beat. That’s just the reality, you know. I think, ‘Okay, give me time to prepare.’ I think I can beat them all.” (Transcribed by Sportskeeda)
How do you think prime Michael Bisping would’ve done against Israel Adesanya?