You are forgiven if you’ve forgotten there are two Ultimate Fighting Championship events this weekend. These things happen to me too. We’ll go two weeks without a single solitary bit of face-punching inside a cage, and then whammo, out of nowhere, the UFC gives us two events from other parts of the world.
This is the new normal. And given the UFC’s plans for world domination into 2015 and beyond, it is only going to get worse. Or better, depending on how you look at things.
Me? I choose to think about the positives, like the fact we’re going to see Michael Bisping vs. Luke Rockhold this weekend. It’s on Fight Pass, of course, and that does not always mean we’re going to see something with real divisional importance.
But Rockhold vs. Bisping? That’s the real deal, man. That means something. The winner of the fight is going to be in a real nice position to challenge for the middleweight championship of the world in 2015.
Rockhold is a heavy favorite over Bisping—and for good reason. Because for all of Bisping‘s fame, and his ability to endure as a top name in the UFC despite never having sniffed a championship shot, he’s just not nearly as good as Rockhold. This is not to say he is not good, because he is. He’s a very good fighter, and against lesser talents he’s able to capitalize and put on a great showing.
Rockhold isn’t a lesser talent. He’s a very good talent who was slightly derailed by a very large and muscular Vitor Belfort, but then jumped right back on the horse and continued his march up the middleweight ladder. Rockhold is a young and genuine contender who could find himself taking a UFC championship belt back to the beaches of Northern California by the end of next year.
And that’s what’s at stake for Rockhold here. A win over Bisping means something. It puts him within shouting distance of the belt, or at least within shouting distance of his own opportunity at the belt.
Despite Bisping‘s inability to get over the hump and secure a title shot of his own, he’s still a crafty and dangerous fighter. But more importantly, his name value is second to none in the middleweight division.
Beating him might prove to be fairly easy for Rockhold; it could be a walk in the park given their size and skill disparity. But the win still means something because Bisping means something.
It is unfortunate, in a way, that Fight Pass is the only way to see this fight. In a perfect world, Saturday’s light heavyweight bout between Shogun Rua and Ovince St. Preux would be on Fight Pass, instead. Because that’s the kind of fight the UFC’s subscription-only service needs: a bout between two light heavyweights that few really care about and where the winner isn’t jumping directly into a situation where he might be headlining a pay-per-view.
Rockhold may not get the next title shot after beating Bisping. That seems to be fine with him, as he’s been talking openly about a rematch with Ronaldo Souza. He’s moving onward and upward to bigger things, and being forced to watch him on Fight Pass is not ideal. This is a fight better suited to Fox or Fox Sports 1 or pay-per-view, where the maximum amount of eyeballs have a chance to see Rockhold do his thing.
Either way, this is an important fight for Rockhold. A win puts him one step closer to the top. And for Bisping, a win over Rockhold might finally be the signature obstacle he’s repeatedly failed to overcome throughout his UFC career.
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