Another card in the books (UFC 199, in particular), another lineup of winners and losers. While there’s usually some nuance and room for creativity when it comes to picking out the luckiest and unluckiest competitor on an MMA card, this one is incredibly clear-cut.
The biggest winner was Michael Bisping. For 10 years now, the Count has been MMA’s greatest B-plus player. Good enough in the cage to get wins. Good enough to make his smack-talking shtick work…but not really good enough to headline big events, and most certainly not good enough to be a champion.
It took a small miracle for him to even get a title shot, winning three razor-thin decisions in a row to build his resume before having Chris Weidman and Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza get injured just two weeks ahead of UFC 199. It took a big miracle for him to actually put the champ, Luke Rockhold, onto wobbly legs, knock him out and take his belt.
The line Bisping used in the commercials for UFC 199 was that he was “destined” to win the UFC title. Apparently he was right.
The biggest loser, on the other hand, was Urijah Faber. Faber has been around the block more than a few times, but UFC gold has eluded him with a strange consistency…and it happened again at UFC 199.
In what was arguably the worst performance of his recent career, The California Kid struggled to even make Dominick Cruz uncomfortable. Every scramble and every exchange would fit into a Cruz highlight reel. Faber was just along for the ride and could hang them up in the next month.
So who else walked away a winner at UFC 199? Who wasn’t so lucky? Read on and find out.