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Are You Happy With St-Pierre vs. Bisping?

Earlier this morning (Wed., March 1, 2017), the mixed martial arts (MMA) universe was shaken to the core when it was officially announced that longtime former UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre would finally make his long-awaited return against current middleweight champ Michael Bisping at a yet-to-be-named event in the second half of 2017. It wasn’t

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Earlier this morning (Wed., March 1, 2017), the mixed martial arts (MMA) universe was shaken to the core when it was officially announced that longtime former UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre would finally make his long-awaited return against current middleweight champ Michael Bisping at a yet-to-be-named event in the second half of 2017.

It wasn’t the most jaw-dropping announcement given the 185-pound title fight had been talked about as a clear option for months, with discussion ramping up since St-Pierre made his comeback official 12 days ago on February 17. ‘GSP’ obviously spent several grinding years as a dominant champion, but he also brings what will be nearly a four-year layoff to the octagon against Bisping, and w have to be honest – his last bout versus Johny Hendricks was one of his least dominant performances, and he escaped with a very controversial split decision.

Mandatory Credit: Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY Sports

Because of that run at welterweight, St-Pierre wants to return to big-money super fights, and outside of a mega bout versus Conor McGregor – a match UFC President Dana White said wasn’t even close to being signed – this is probably the biggest fight ‘GSP’ can return to. Yes, there were fights like his long-rumored dream match with Anderson Silva and a rematch with Nick Diaz, but those fights can still happen.

And they can happen for much higher stakes if St-Pierre does beat Bisping and join McGregor, Randy Couture, and BJ Penn as one of MMA’s few heralded multi-division champions in the UFC.

Yet there’s the backlash I’ve seen many fans speaking of online, that of the fact clear No. 1 middleweight contender Yoel Romero was denied his title shot at Bisping, something White had seemingly promised ‘Soldier of God’ recently. Those type of promises are shaky at best, we’ve come to realize, and now a middleweight division that was already in a state of disarray after Bisping knocked out Luke Rockhold on short notice last year and his first title defense against No. 13 Dan Henderson last October.

It seems there’s a cloud around St-Pierre’s return, a fog that echoes a sentiment all the best fighters at 185 pounds are getting passed over for a man, who while no doubt being a great, has never fought at middleweight and also has not competed for over three years. Romero will wait, Jacare Souza will just have to keep dominating whoever is next, Luke Rockhold will have to fae one of them in his return eventually, and the Chris Weidman vs. Gegard Mousasi co-main event at next month’s UFC 210, which will feature No. 4 vs. No. 5, will do little to project the winner into a title shot despite it obviously being a huge victory on paper.

So hence the mixed feelings about St-Pierre vs. Bisping. If ‘GSP’ wins as many are expecting him to, then he probably won’t face Romero or Souza in his first title defense. He’d have to face Silva or Diaz because the opportunities would both be too huge to pass up, and they’d certainly be several times bigger than St-Pierre vs. any one of the top middleweights in terms of rankings. The UFC’s new ownership needs attraction-level fights and fast, and these fit that billing like few other bouts could.

I for one think St-Pierre vs. Bisping will be a fun fight with a great backstory. I just can’t help but feel the already messy middleweight division got a whole lot muddier in the process. What are your thoughts on the unexpected title fight?

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Luke Rockhold Wants Trilogy Fight With Michael Bisping

At this time last year, Luke Rockhold was on top of the world as he was beating the best fighters in the UFC’s middleweight division and was the reigning UFC middleweight champion. At the time, the most pressing question was when he would have his rematch with former champ Chris Weidman. That rematch never happened

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That rematch never happened as Weidman was injured and Michael Bisping agreed to fight Rockhold at UFC 199 for the middleweight title, which led to Bisping scoring a stunning knockout to win the title. Since then, Bisping has fought Dan Henderson and Rockhold has been on the sidelines with a knee injury. Now that Rockhold is healed up, he wants to fight Bisping, title or not. Bisping is expected to defend his title against top contender Yoel Romero next and if Bisping loses the title, Rockhold would rather fight Bisping than for the title.

“I want Bisping,” Rockhold said on a recent edition of The MMA Hour. “There’s no way around it. I’m not going to give that up. That one doesn’t sit that well with me and I’m going to have to go out and find him no matter, title or not title, I will not let that pass. I’ll finish that. If he does lose, I’ll take a step back and avoid the title and go after that first. I’m not letting that man squeak by and keep running his mouth.”

Rockhold admits that it’s been frustrating to sit on the sidelines but noted that he doesn’t believe that the pecking order has changed much since he was fighting.

“I think Bisping is a coward and he’s running and trying to look for irrelevant fights,” Rockhold said. “I think Jacare is right where he was before I left. Anderson [Silva], he came back, he did his thing. I haven’t seen much else. I think everyone sees how the division is playing, and how Bisping is stalling and is trying to do everything he can work around fighting one of the top guys,” Rockhold continued. “You have to expect that it should take awhile for a chance to come up, given Yoel is first.”

During that time, Rockhold, who submitted Bisping in their first fight back in 2014, has to live what went down last June, which was a knockout loss. Although Rockhold is a tough guy, he admitted that it’s a bitter pill to swallow.

“It doesn’t sit well with me,” said Rockhold, who has targeted an early-summer return from his knee injury. “If anyone knows me, that’s not going to sit well with me and it kind of frustrated me and that’s why I’ve gone off to travel and distract myself. I’m trying to get healthy but I know that I can’t go in there without my weapons, I would almost cheat myself to go on without the left kick in that fight and I finally realized it and I tried to dance around it. … I gotta go in with my tools, and I can’t f*ck around. I have to go in there and show what’s mine.”

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Michael Bisping Says He “Took Luke Rockhold’s Soul” At UFC 199

Michael Bisping hasn’t forgotten about Luke Rockhold. ‘The Count’ secured his first even UFC title in a jaw-dropping first round knockout win over Rockhold back in June. Rockhold has since remained out of Octagon action due to an injury, however, he recently commented on an episode of The MMA Hour with MMA Fighting’s Ariel Helwani

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Michael Bisping hasn’t forgotten about Luke Rockhold.

‘The Count’ secured his first even UFC title in a jaw-dropping first round knockout win over Rockhold back in June. Rockhold has since remained out of Octagon action due to an injury, however, he recently commented on an episode of The MMA Hour with MMA Fighting’s Ariel Helwani that he’d be prepared to forego a title opportunity to settle his differences with Bisping in a final trilogy bout.

Bisping got the opportunity to respond earlier this week (quotes via MMA Fighting), and stated that he believes Rockhold is done competing in mixed martial arts (MMA) after he ‘took his soul’ in their UFC 199 match-up:

“What is Luke Rockhold doing?” Bisping said. “When did he say he’s going to fight again? What are his plans? I do believe we are now almost in March. That fight was in June. I don’t know what happened there, but I think I took his soul. I don’t think we’ll ever see Luke Rockhold again. I beat the sh*t out of him. I don’t know, I think he’s done. The way he went down, I think so. Why hasn’t he fought again?

“A lot of time has passed. If that were me, I would’ve been right back in there.”

The middleweight champ has no shortage of foes in the 185-pound division, as he also has a bit of unfinished business with former division kingpin Anderson Silva as well. The pair tangled back in February of last year with Bisping taking home the unanimous decision win. The victory came with a bit of controversy, however, as a flying knee at the end of a round by Silva seemed to have rendered the Brit unconscious; but ‘The Spider’ walked away from Bisping without attempting to finish the fight.

Silva recently took home a controversial unanimous decision win over Derek Brunson at UFC 208 earlier this month (Sat. February 11, 2017), a fight that Bisping thinks the Brazilian actually lost:

“I thought he lost,” Bisping said. “I guess you could see an argument for him winning, but I think he disappointed. I thought Anderson really, to be honest, clowned himself, clowned everybody in attendance, clowned the UFC. It was clearly obvious that Anderson was the better fighter. He stopped the takedowns for the most part. His takedown defense looked great. And when he did decide to pull the trigger and actually throw something, he was all over Brunson.

“But he just didn’t pull the trigger. He stood there and he tried to do his usual Anderson Silva thing. He doesn’t fight with a sense of urgency because he’s the great Anderson Silva. Well, unfortunately, that’s not good enough. He got very lucky with the decision, and I feel that it’s a real shame, because like everybody, I’m a fan of Anderson Silva. I like watching him fight. I feel that he didn’t do justice to his legions of fans.”

Bisping also took a shot at Silva’s past issues with performance enhancing drugs (PEDs), stating that Silva looked a little ‘flabbier’ at weigh-ins before his match with Brunson:

“He did,” Bisping said. “I said that at the weigh-ins when I saw at the weigh-ins. He looked a little skinny, and a little flabbier. It’s weird. Weird when you don’t take steroids what happens to you.”

Do you think Bisping and Rockhold will get the opportunity to throw-down once again? Or will Silva instead run it back with the middleweight champ first?

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Jacare Souza: ‘I Want to Fight Luke Rockhold in July’

Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza is adamant about fighting Luke Rockhold again In their encounter back in Sept. 2011, Rockhold defeated Souza to capture the Strikeforce middleweight championship. The loss ended “Jacare’s” run with the title. Since that fight, Souza has gone 10-1. Souza rebounded from his split decision loss to Yoel Romero with two straight victories […]

Luke Rockhold Responds To Jacare’s Callout

Former UFC middleweight champion Luke Rockhold was scheduled to rematch former Strikeforce champion Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza this past November, but he was forced to withdraw from the bout due to injury. The American Kickboxing Academy (AKA) product last competed at June 2016’s UFC 199, losing his title in shocking fashion to Michael Bisping. Recently speaking

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Recently speaking on the state of the middleweight division, Rockhold said that he hasn’t seen much ‘movement’, also saying that he’d like to ‘finish business’ with Souza upon his return:

“I haven’t seen much movement in the division, honestly. I think Bisping is a coward and he’s running and trying to get irrelevant fights and I think Jacare is right where he was before I left,” Rockhold said on yesterday’s edition of The MMA Hour.

“Anderson came back, did his thing, I haven’t seen much else go down. I’m excited to get back. ‘Jacare’ says I’m running, he wants to stay relevant, he wants to stay in the fight game, not wait around. He’ll have to wait a while (for a title shot) given the current situation, so I’d love to go in there and fix that situation and finish my business with that man.”

Rockhold even has a time frame for a potential rematch with the Brazilian submission ace:

“If the time works for him, I think that July timeframe, International Fight Week (July), it plays nicely for me. I want ‘Jacare,’ I’m not looking to dance around. I’m going straight through the gut of the division back to my title.”

Souza fought last weekend at UFC 208 in Brooklyn, submitting Tim Boetsch in the first round of their main card bout. “Jacare” is currently ranked No. 2 in the 185-pound division, but Rockhold doesn’t seem to be impressed with his progress:

“I didn’t see anything from ‘Jacare.’ I think he’s slow, I think he’s stiff and I think he forces the fight as to where I flow with the fight,” said Luke. “I haven’t seen him grow since I fought him. I know that I had a little fall back, but I will bounce back and show people that it wasn’t what you will see in the future, I will reset and put that man away,” he concluded.

Rockhold did indeed edge out a decision victory over Souza when the two first met, but would you expect a different outcome in a rematch?

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Luke Rockhold: Brands Michael Bisping a Coward, Wants Jacare Fight

There is no love lost between former middleweight champion Luke Rockhold and the man who took his title, Michael Bisping. Rockhold has been out of action since suffering an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury, but is eyeing a return to the octagon soon. The former champion was pulled from a rematch with “Jacare” Souza due […]