Following an injury to Mark Munoz, Michael “The Count” Bisping is set to contest the No. 1 contendership to Anderson Silva’s 185-pound title with Chael Sonnen at UFC on Fox 2.
If Bisping is able to derail Sonnen’s ambitious plans of a rematch with the middleweight king, he’ll automatically take the driving seat and vie for the coveted crown himself.
For argument’s sake, let’s say he does upend Sonnen in Chicago in a fortnight. Will he then be deserving of the title shot that the self-proclaimed “American Gangster” has so vociferously clamored for?
If you were to ask Sonnen, he does.
In an interview with USA Today, this is what the ex-realtor had to say:
I’m a Bisping supporter. I think he has. I think he’s fought a lot of important matches.
I don’t know how tough the guys he fought were, how many ranked guys he had—I’m not terribly familiar with his record. But at the end of the day, you can say what you want about his opponents, he doesn’t pick his opponents. They pick his opponents and he goes in and he wins over and over again.
I think it’s really relevant, especially for the Bisping naysayers, to realize he’s fighting main-event fights. He’s carrying cards. He’s selling out arenas. In this industry, that’s huge. He’s done his part.
And I’ll second that as well.
As Sonnen so supportingly intimated, Bisping can only fight what’s put in front of him. Regardless of the caliber of combatants—low to mid-tier, the fact remains he’s been quite successful.
So far in his tenure for the Zuffa-based promotion, the Brit brawler has amassed 12 wins—most notably over Matt Hamill, Chris Leben, Yoshihiro Akiyama, Jorge Rivera and recently Jason “Mayhem” Miller
Two of the three losses on his record, however, were against top-tier fighters, Rashad Evans at light-heavyweight and Dan Henderson at middleweight, whilst the other was to the once-great Wanderlei Silva.
Presently, Bisping (22-3 MMA) is on a four-fight win streak.
With that said, The Count has my unwavering support.
Though, he still hasn’t a cat in hell’s chance of denying Sonnen his rematch with “The Spider” and another shot at the UFC Holy Grail.
UFC on Fox 2 is set for Jan. 28, 2012, at the United Center in Chicago, Ill.
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