Following a highly controversial decision loss to Chael Sonnen in the semi-main event of UFC on FOX 2, a very humble Michael Bisping spoke candidly about the judges’ decision to award the fight to his opponent.
“First of all, I want say ‘congratulations’ to Chael Sonnen. He obviously did enough in the judges’ eyes to win the fight,” he told MMA Fighting’s Ariel Helwani. “Personally, I think I won the first two rounds. I think there’s no question he got the third round, although if I had another round, I probably would’ve stopped him.”
There were certainly some questions going into this bout as many believed this would be a one-sided beatdown with Sonnen dominating from bell to bell. It certainly did not turn out that way and Bisping believes he may have finally earned some respect from some of his detractors.
“You’ve always got supporters, you’ve always got haters,” Bisping said. “But that’s not what concerns me. What concerns me is going out there and putting on great fights and providing for my wife and children.”
“I wanted to win tonight, but I obviously didn’t do enough. I feel I won the fight, but obviously Chael’s walking away the victor.”
Though he is disappointed in not having his hand raised, Bisping is not making any excuses. He did have a change in opponent on short notice as he was originally set to fight Demian Maia, but an opportunity arose for him to get a chance to fight in the main event against Sonnen when Mark Munoz got hurt and he jumped all over it.
Some believe that this change in opponent, particularly the change in style from a primarily jiu-jitsu opponent to a primarily wrestling opponent, but the Englishman didn’t believe that was it.
“I don’t think that’s the issue. I pretty much had a full training camp. I was training for a different fight, but my cardio was there,” he said. “I’ve only got myself to blame.”
As for what he could have done differently, Bisping believes that it all had to do with how much time he spent on his back in the third round. Had that round turned out differently, perhaps the entire fight would’ve been different.
“At the end of the third round, I got to my feet, I took him down and I started landing some nice elbows,” he explained. “If I had maybe pushed for that earlier…as opposed to—I don’t know what I was doing—I was being [too] careful.”
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