With UFC 152 in the books, it’s time to look forward and find out what is next for the biggest winners from Saturday night.
Every pay-per-view has clear winners and losers, but sometimes it isn’t as black and white as each fight’s outcome would suggest. Sometimes even in a loss, a star can be prove he is a winner.
Whether these stars won or lost, the following fighters proved their merit Saturday night and have big things in store for their career going forward.
Vitor Belfort
It is true that Vitor Belfort lost in the main event to Jon Jones, but UFC fans can’t forget that the man jumped weight classes to take this fight on short notice. Considering how close he came to forcing Jones to tap out to an armbar, Belfort was a winner.
At 35 years old, there aren’t too many years left for the MMA veteran, but this performance in the light heavyweight division should give him more credibility heading back to middleweight. Even a loss to Jones has to earn Belfort a shot at the middleweight No. 1 contender spot.
Anderson Silva has run roughshod over the middleweight division for years, and Belfort knows just how tough fighting the Brazilian star can be. With that said, Dana White has to consider Belfort one of the top three contenders in the middleweight division.
Michael Bisping
While MMA fans across the world love the hard-hitting style of Michael Bisping, the star has never fought for a title in the UFC. To say he deserves a shot now would be an understatement.
In a thin middleweight division laid to waste by the title run of Anderson Silva, it should be Bisping that is the No. 1 contender for the championship. While Silva will undoubtedly destroy the British star, Bisping proved he deserves the shot at the belt.
Bisping beat Brian Stann Saturday night at UFC 152 and dominated the whole fight. While Silva would destroy Bisping if he uses the game plan he had against Stann, who else is there in the middleweight division that deserves the No. 1 contenders spot more?
Jon Jones
If fighting is an art form, Jon Jones is turning into the Michelangelo of MMA.
Maybe that’s a bit huge, but Jones is one of the most talented fighters we have ever seen in the sport.
At just 25 years old, the UFC light heavyweight champion still has so much room to grow mentally and physically. For his opponents, the thought of the champion getting any better is terrifying.
After surviving an early scare before beating down Belfort in convincing fashion and finally submitting him in the fourth round, Jones has proven his dominance. The problem is there isn’t much left in the division for Jones to take on.
While the UFC could march out young guys like Phil Davis or Alexander Gustafsson, they would be better off scheduling a fight with Chael Sonnen that would allow for ample training time and pre-fight trash talking.
That would be a PPV-worthy fight.
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