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UFC Fight Night 48: Bisping vs. Le Fight Card, Live Stream, Predictions and More

The UFC Fight Night 48 card is perfectly placed as a Fight Pass exclusive. While most fans know the names of the headliners quite well, Michael “The Count” Bisping and Cung Le aren’t exactly near the top of anyone’s pound-for-pound list.
This is a card…

This is a card for the hardcore MMA fan, and that’s generally who subscribes to UFC Fight Pass.

Expect Le to be the heavy crowd favorite, as the event takes place in Macao, China. The Vietnamese-born Le has served as a coach on The Ultimate Fighter: China, and his last bout was in 2012 at UFC: Macao.

The local crowd is well acquainted with Le and should be behind him in the bout.

The co-feature of the event is the return of Tyron Woodley. After being dismantled in his last bout by Rory MacDonald, Woodley will try to bounce back against South Korean contender Dong Hyun Kim.

Here’s a look at the entire card and predictions for each bout. Just beneath the table is a deeper analysis into the top three bouts on tap.

Le Will Stop Bisping

There are similarities between Bisping and Chael Sonnen. Their fighting styles are completely different, but both have more mic skills than Octagon prowess.

Bisping‘s mouth has earned him shot after shot at glory in the UFC, but he’s never been able to come through with the big win. The fact that he’s fighting Le—a fighter who hasn’t competed since 2012—is proof The Count’s career is headed in the wrong direction.

While Le has been inactive, he’s kept himself in remarkable shape.

He is 42 years old, but when a fighter stays as fit as Le, he is able to prolong his effectiveness. That’s especially the case considering he hasn’t taken the lumps that more active fighters have taken in recent years.

At 35, Bisping isn’t exactly a spring chicken, and he’s endured far more wear and tear. He’s lost three of his last five bouts, so this one is huge for his future. Because he still seems to have eyes on contending and Le hasn’t committed to making a long-term run in the sport, Bisping has the most to lose.

That dynamic is going to make it all the more crushing when Le lands the combination that sends Bisping reeling. While The Count is known for his boxing skills, Le’s short, quick shots have more power, and Bisping‘s chin has been called into question against Dan Henderson and Vitor Belfort.

Look for Le to become the next man to put Bisping down for the count.

Woodley Will Rebound

Originally, Hector Lombard was supposed to face Kim, but an injury forced him out. Woodley was able to step in and give himself an opportunity for a relatively quick turnaround after his humbling loss to MacDonald.

If Woodley faced MacDonald five times, the result would probably be the same. He simply had no answer for MacDonald’s length and accurate striking.

However, against Kim, Woodley‘s speed, explosiveness and power should be enough to score an exciting stoppage victory. Despite a solid grappling base, Kim likes to stand and fight.

Per Kevin Thang of Cage Pages, Kim adopted a more aggressive style to take the next step in his UFC career. Kim said:

I’ve been continuing to stack up some wins, but I wasn’t given the title shot. And I’ve decided that well in order for me to get a title shot I’m going to have to change the way that I fight. So I decided to get much more aggressive and hopefully I’ll get noticed and we’ll get a shot at the title.

Bleacher Report’s Matthew Ryder talked about Kim’s transformation. He said:

Not that long ago, Dong Hyun Kim was boring. Really boring.

For a guy so thoroughly trained in the art of putting fist to face, he sure could suck the fun out of the process. He was far keener to smother from the top position than he was to execute big throws or beautiful combinations.

After his highlight-reel KO of John Hathaway in March, Kim won’t be looking to dial back his aggression. That approach won’t serve him well against Woodley.

While Kim will have a similar height advantage to the one MacDonald enjoyed, he isn’t as selective as a striker. He attacks with more reckless abandon, and that’s not the way to fight Woodley. From a pure athletic standpoint, Woodley is at the top of the list in the UFC.

Kim will likely play right into his hands by being overly aggressive. Woodley will win by TKO after a hard right hand and some ground-and-pound.

The Badger Will Take The Warrior Apart

Zhang “The Warrior” Lipeng will have his home crowd in his corner, but it won’t be enough to guide him to a victory. Brendan “The Badger” O’Reilly has the potential to become a contender in the UFC’s welterweight division.

He has excellent cardio, stand-up boxing and footwork, and his submission skills are solid.

Lipeng is a decent fighter, but the man from Inner Mongolia has been placed in this spot to appeal to the local crowd. He’s getting a tough draw in O’Reilly.

Initially, O’Reilly‘s striking will prove superior to Lipeng‘s, but once the fight goes to the ground, The Badger will finish things with a submission win.

Follow Brian Mazique, the Sports and Video Game Journalist.

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UFC Fight Night 48 Weigh-in Results and Updates

UFC Fight Night 48 takes place in Macao on Saturday, but the fighters will first have to step on the scale to make weight.
Michael Bisping takes on Cung Le in the evening’s main event with a fantastic welterweight scrap between Tyron Woodley and D…

UFC Fight Night 48 takes place in Macao on Saturday, but the fighters will first have to step on the scale to make weight.

Michael Bisping takes on Cung Le in the evening’s main event with a fantastic welterweight scrap between Tyron Woodley and Dong Hyun Kim as the co-main event.

The weigh-ins will take place at 4 a.m. ET live on UFC Fight Pass early Friday. Bleacher Report will have complete coverage of the proceedings.

UFC Fight Night 48 Fight Card

Michael Bisping vs. Cung Le
Dong Hyun Kim vs. Tyron Woodley
Zhang Lipeng vs. Brendan O’Reilly
Ning Guangyou vs. Jianping Yang
Wang Sai vs. Danny Mitchell
Alberto Mina vs. Shinsho Anzai
Roland Delorme vs. Yuta Sasaki
Wang Anying vs. Colby Covington
Elizabeth Phillips vs. Milana Dudieva
Yao Zhikui vs. Royston Wee

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Michael Bisping vs. Cung Le: Keys to Victory for Each Fighter

While they are among the most notable fighters in the middleweight division, Michael Bisping and Cung Le both need a big win to become a serious candidate for a shot at the 185-pound championship.
An accomplished UFC veteran, Bisping has been on the ve…

While they are among the most notable fighters in the middleweight division, Michael Bisping and Cung Le both need a big win to become a serious candidate for a shot at the 185-pound championship.

An accomplished UFC veteran, Bisping has been on the verge of earning a title shot multiple times. However, he’s had trouble putting wins together when it matters. Over his past six appearances, he has alternated wins and losses, failing to generate the momentum needed to become the top contender.

Le has always been considered immensely talented. However, his acting career has prevented him from being active enough to become the best in the world. Despite taking another 21 months away from competition heading into this matchup, Le could become a serious contender with an impressive victory over Bisping on Saturday at UFC Fight Night 48 in Macau.

As this pivotal middleweight main event approaches, now is a good time to take a closer look at where Bisping and Le must excel to earn a win this weekend.

Michael Bisping: Weather the Storm and Keep the Pace Torrid

Expect Bisping to approach this matchup the same way he approaches every matchup.

The Englishman has some of the best cardio in the middleweight division, so he’ll be wise to utilize volume striking as much as he can. That strategy could be especially effective in this matchup.

Likely due in part to his inactivity, Le has had a tendency to fade in later rounds. Never was that more apparent than in his UFC debut against Wanderlei Silva, who was dominated by the Strikeforce veteran before breaking Le’s nose badly in a second-round finish.

As long as Bisping can weather Le’s strong opening stanza, he should be able to control the pace from the second round to the end. If he keeps Le working and wears the 42-year-old down, the end could come before the scorecards need to be considered.

Cung Le: Mix Offense Up and Set Up the Head Kick

With two knockout losses inside the Octagon, Bisping does have some holes in his defensive striking.

A dynamic striker with knockout wins over Rich Franklin and Frank Shamrock, Le has the potential to exploit those shortcomings. However, he can’t come at a crafty fighter like Bisping with spinning kick followed by spinning kick as he did against Silva. Le needs to be unpredictable and mix things up.

Scoring multiple takedowns on Patrick Cote at UFC 148, Le put his underrated wrestling on display. Bisping has some underappreciated wrestling of his own, so Le isn’t going to win this fight with takedowns. However, an unexpected one early on could end up lowering Bisping‘s hands, as he’ll be less sure what is coming at him.

The last thing Le wants to do is abandon his striking in this matchup, but throwing a surprise takedown attempt at Bisping will open up striking possibilities in a big way. It could lower the Englishman’s guard just enough for Le to sneak a shin over Bisping‘s hands and earn a shocking finish.

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UFC Fight Night 48 and 49 Main Card Betting Odds and Predictions

The UFC returns this Saturday with two fight cards. UFC Fight Night 48 hits Macau in China, and UFC Fight Night 49 takes place in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
UFC Fight Night 48 is headlined by Cung Le vs. Michael Bisping in a middleweight contest, and UFC Fight N…

The UFC returns this Saturday with two fight cards. UFC Fight Night 48 hits Macau in China, and UFC Fight Night 49 takes place in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

UFC Fight Night 48 is headlined by Cung Le vs. Michael Bisping in a middleweight contest, and UFC Fight Night 49’s main event is a top-five battle in the lightweight division between Rafael dos Anjos and Benson Henderson.

Eight other main card tilts in total will take place over the course of Saturday.

This breakdown will assist you in your attempts to identify the best value this weekend. Let’s get right to looking at the odds for this weekend’s cards.

All odds provided by Oddsshark.com.

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Cung Le and Michael Bisping to Undergo Enhanced Drug Testing; Le Defends His Suspiciously Jacked Physique

(Cung Le in November 2011, and Cung Le in August 2014. The only thing that hasn’t changed is his underwear.)

Over the weekend, UFC middleweight Cung Le posted a photo of himself flexing after an intense workout — and immediately raised the suspicions of armchair endocrinologists around the globe. Despite his athletic gifts, Le hasn’t always been the leanest or most muscular fighter out there; in fact, he’s looked rather soft at times, relatively speaking. But now, at the age of 42, he’s showing up looking this jacked? In a sport where aging veterans are getting popped for PEDs left and right, MMA fans were understandably dubious.

In an apparent response to the accusations being flung at Le, the UFC has announced that Cung Le and his opponent Michael Bisping will undergo enhanced drug testing for their UFC Fight Night 48 headlining bout this Saturday in Macau. The testing will be performed at the UFC’s expense, and will include blood-testing, which would theoretically identify non-steroid PEDs like human growth hormone (HGH) and recombinant human erythropoietin (EPO).

Of course, we probably won’t get the results of these tests until weeks after the fact, which does absolutely nothing to prevent potential cheaters from competing. (I kind of agree with Mark Bocek here; if all these drug tests are timed so that big fights still get to proceed as scheduled, it doesn’t reflect well on the UFC’s priorities, or how serious they are about eradicating the PED epidemic.)

But it might be a moot point in this case, because Cung Le doesn’t plan on failing a drug test anytime soon…

(Cung Le in November 2011, and Cung Le in August 2014. The only thing that hasn’t changed is his underwear.)

But it might be a moot point in this case, because Cung Le doesn’t plan on failing a drug test anytime soon. When asked about the photo by an MMAJunkie reporter, Le went on a four-minute rant explaining why he looked so rocked in the now-infamous photo, and why he didn’t look so hot in the past. Instead of transcribing the whole damn thing, here’s the short version…

– Cung says he doesn’t look like that all the time; the photo was just the result of good lighting and a hard-ass workout where he sweated out six-and-a-half pounds. That being said, he has good genetics, as evidenced by his old photos.

– It’s unfair to judge him by the softer physique he sported during his previous UFC fights. He had a cracked rib coming into his bout against Wanderlei Silva, and an injured foot coming into the Rich Franklin fight, both of which prevented him from training hard and led to the over-consumption of chocolate. Since then, he’s hired a nutritionist for the first time in his career.

– He’s naturally veiny. And compared to Luke Rockhold or even Michael Bisping, he’s tiny. “I’m just lean…so, get over it!”

– Unrelated, but I couldn’t help but notice the way Elizabeth Phillips was staring at Le throughout his interview. We may have found Cung Le’s #1 fan.

Michael Bisping vs. Cung Le: Contrived Insults Are Totally Unnecessary

If you were looking for a reason to wake up at 6:30 a.m. ET to watch the preliminary card for the UFC’s latest return to Macau, China, on Saturday, well, I’ve got nothing for you.
That’s a little early in the morning when all you have to look forward t…

If you were looking for a reason to wake up at 6:30 a.m. ET to watch the preliminary card for the UFC’s latest return to Macau, China, on Saturday, well, I’ve got nothing for you.

That’s a little early in the morning when all you have to look forward to is Danny Mitchell vs. Wang Sai in a preliminary “main event.”

The idea of a main event for a preliminary card is one of the dumbest things the UFC has created in recent years, and it is even sillier when it features two men named Danny Mitchell and Wang Sai.

But if you are the obsessive type and are still riding a high from Saturday’s mostly-excellent fight card from Maine—or perhaps Sunday’s even-better WWE SummerSlam—then perhaps it is worth waking up at 9 a.m. ET to see Michael Bisping and Cung Le invade The Venetian Macau.

As with most UFC international events, Michael Bisping vs. Cung Le is only available on Fight Pass, and that means you’ll need to become a subscriber.

This is a worthwhile investment if you are a fan of fighting because Fight Pass has many hours of fighting available at your fingertips. Events such as Bisping vs. Le are the cherry on top.

For the most part, they are tiny cherries. These are not events designed to capture your attention in the same way the UFC’s pay-per-view efforts are. They are created solely to expand the UFC’s global footprint and as such are filled with fighters you have never heard of.

Apologies to the families of Wang Anying and Yuta Sasaki, but I am not intimately familiar with the particulars of their career. In this, I suspect I am in the majority.

Still, when it comes to selling you on the fight, Bisping is giving it the old college try. The college try is what he does, both in his efforts to build up interest in his fights and the fights themselves. He has consistently been one of the UFC’s more entertaining speakers since he made his debut in 2006, but he has never been close to its top star.

In the Octagon, he beats the guys he’s supposed to beat but can’t get over the hump against credible challengers.

There are always excuses afterwards, of course, because that is another thing Bisping does well.

“Kennedy had a game plan to hold me down and he executed that game plan well. In hindsight, I should never have accepted a fight just seven weeks after getting cleared to return to the gym after my eye injury,” Bisping said in an official UFC email sent to Bleacher Report.

“Yes, I was anxious to get back in there and earn my first paycheck in over a year but, with hindsight, I needed several months in the gym getting rid of ring rust. Instead, I made a huge mistake in taking on a wrestler like Kennedy without putting the work in—and I paid for it.”

Kennedy held him down. Bisping still wasn’t all that healthy, even though he accepted the fight. He sure wasn’t healthy enough to face a wrestler because wrestlers are boring and don’t fight the way Bisping wants them to. Which is to say, they beat him with regularity.

But now, it’s on to Le, a 42-year-old fighter/actor who has recently discovered—and then drank the entirety of—the fountain of youth.

It is good this fight is taking place in China, because the social media photos floating around which display Le’s brand-new body would make any commission worth their salt stand up and wonder if he is still, in fact, part human.

“I may be 42, but my mind and body tell me I can still do this,” Le said. He neglected to mention that his new body is only 21 years old.

Bisping had things to say about Le, but none of them focus on Le’s new look. Instead, he went to the heart of the matter by taking shots at Le’s movie career. Because nothing makes fans want to see two dudes fight more than pithy insults about someone’s standing in Hollywood, right?

“Listen, Cung Le is basically back in the UFC to boost his brand and remind everybody of his existence. He hasn’t fought in a couple of years, so I’m guessing his profile has dipped, he’s probably not getting too many embarrassing kung-fu movie offers right now and—probably worst of all for him—Channing Tatum has stopped retweeting him,” Bisping said. “I’m going to put a beating on him, and he can disappear again back to B-movies.”

Tatum has stopped retweeting him. I bet you guys that will make Le so mad and he’ll want to punch Bisping in the face. And, man, he really cut right to the core of Le’s social media heart, didn’t he?

The anticipation is at an all-time high.

I wonder how much a last-minute flight to Macau would cost me?

Look, Bisping vs. Le should be a fun fight. There will be fireworks. Someone might get knocked out. It doesn’t need contrived insults to get people to watch.

Those dedicated enough to get up early in the morning to watch a fight card from China likely won’t care about dumb insults anyway. They’ll watch because it might be a fun fight and they enjoy fighting for what it is.

Or, they’ll watch because they want to see Tyron Woodley vs. Dong Hyun Kim. That’s the most important fight on the entire card. It has meaning.

And neither man needs to insult the other about their friendship with Tatum to get me to watch.

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