Tag: Michael Bisping vs. Nick Diaz

Michael Bisping Calls Out Nick Diaz For UFC 206

Following UFC 204, the hunt for the next contender to the UFC middleweight title will continue. With four from the top five contenders currently tied up in bookings against each other, current champion Michael Bisping has been looking elsewhere. After winning the belt from Luke Rockhold at UFC 199, ‘The Count’ toyed with the idea

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Following UFC 204, the hunt for the next contender to the UFC middleweight title will continue. With four from the top five contenders currently tied up in bookings against each other, current champion Michael Bisping has been looking elsewhere. After winning the belt from Luke Rockhold at UFC 199, ‘The Count’ toyed with the idea of fighting Georges St-Pierre, before being offered the fight with Dan Henderson. Considering the harrowing KO ‘Hendo’ planted Bisping with in 2009, it’s no wonder the Englishman wanted some revenge. That being said, the decision to make Bisping vs. Henderson 2 led to many sour grapes.

Understandably, the rest of the division was upset that Henderson, ranked at number 14, would receive a title fight. Now that grudge match is complete, ‘The Count’ has been vocal about facing Georges St-Pierre. Shooting down those reports this week were both ‘GSP’ and UFC president Dana White. With UFC 206 in Toronto just begging for one more huge fight, Bisping has called out another fighting legend. Exactly the route Tyron Woodley took after UFC 201, Bisping has called for Nick Diaz to sign the contract.

Credit: Steve Flynn USA Today Sports

Bisping vs. Diaz?

Calling out former Strikeforce and WEC champion Nick Diaz, Michael Bisping has asked the returning cult hero to sign the contract for a fight at UFC 206. As quoted by MMAFighting.com:

“I’m down to fight ASAP because Dana and the UFC put this in my mind, fighting at 206. So now in my mind I want to fight at 206. I was ready to take the rest of the year off and do nothing and enjoy being the champion and have some time with my kids and go away for Thanksgiving. But then this was put in my mind again and now I want to fight in Toronto. So yeah, if it’s not gonna be GSP, I don’t mind being on the card against somebody else and Nick Diaz is somebody else that moves the needle… His last fight was against Anderson Silvaso he’s fought at 185, and if Nick Diaz wants to do it, I’ll fight Nick Diaz. If anybody wants to do it, I’ll do it.”

“I’ll fight anybody as long as it makes sense business-wise. I’m not gonna risk my reputation and my title against some chump, but if there’s a lot of money on the line, then I’ll do it. And if Nick Diaz wants to go at UFC 206, formally, officially, I invite you to sign the bout agreement. Let’s do it. And then after that, whoever wins more impressively of the top four middleweights- Rockhold, Weidman, Yoel, and Souza, I’ll fight after this. That will happen. 100%. Believe you me, I want to fight Chris Weidman. Out of the four of them – I’ve already beat Rockhold – Weidman is the one I want to fight.”

Credit: Jayne Kamin Oncea USA Today Sports

Should It Happen?

Asking the rest of the 185-pound contenders this question will likely get you one clear response. Insisting he’s not looking for ‘easy fights,’ Bisping says it’s not up to him to watch over the rest of the division:

“All the other middleweights [are] basically saying I’m looking for easy fights, which is pissing me off because of course Henderson wasn’t the rightful No. 1 contender, the UFC offered me that fight. And Georges St-Pierre isn’t the rightful No. 1 contender but he was the one talking to me for the fight. I’m not out here looking for easy pickings,”

“It ain’t my responsibility to look after the entire UFC roster. I’m looking after Michael Bisping and Michael Bisping’s family.”

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Michael Bisping Is Willing To Fight Nick Diaz, But There’s A Catch

Ever since Michael Bisping won the UFC middleweight championship with a shocking first-round knockout of heavily favored Luke Rockhold in the main event of June 4’s UFC 199 from Inglewood, California, there has been a seemingly never-ending stream of potential contenders for ‘The Count’s’ belt. Rockhold understandably wants his rematch, former champion Chris Weidman wants

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Ever since Michael Bisping won the UFC middleweight championship with a shocking first-round knockout of heavily favored Luke Rockhold in the main event of June 4’s UFC 199 from Inglewood, California, there has been a seemingly never-ending stream of potential contenders for ‘The Count’s’ belt.

Rockhold understandably wants his rematch, former champion Chris Weidman wants the title shot he was supposed to get against Rockhold, and even Bisping’s old nemesis Dan Henderson has been thrown in the hat after ‘The Count’ said he wanted to finally settle their score from 2009’s UFC 100 (and ‘Hendo’ knocked out Hector Lombard in devastating fashion).

And then things were taken to an all-new – and unexpected – level earlier this week when all-time great former welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre revealed that he was willing to return for a title fight against Bisping if he could only get his contract situation with the UFC sorted. Weidman was quick to point that Bisping was perhaps taking ‘easy fights’ in order to hold on to his belt, but the fact remained that any fight with ‘GSP’ – even a title fight in a weight class he had never fought in – was big money bout that simply could not be passed up.

But there’s apparently yet another big name to throw his hat into the ‘Bisping Sweepstakes,’ as ‘The Count’ revealed on ‘The Countdown’ podcast that he had recently hung out with popular bad boy Nick Diaz, and the Stockton slugger levied a challenge for a bout, albeit with a somewhat strange stipulation:

“I’ll tell you something as well, another possible opponent that hasn’t been spoken about, and I was with him a couple of night ago in New York, I bumped into him in New York – Nick Diaz. He’s like, ‘Man, we should fight, we should fight.’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, I’m down to fight you no problem.’ And then he says, ‘But we have to do it at 178.’ I’m like, ‘What do you mean 178?’ He said we do a catch weight at 178. I’m like, ‘Let’s just do 185.’ He’s like, ‘Nope. 178.’ So anyway, I had a good time with Nick, by the way, we had a couple of drinks and hung out, he’s a good dude.”

Asked about the reasoning behind Diaz’ strange request, Bisping said he didn’t know and didn’t ask:

“For sure. I don’t know, he didn’t elaborate, and I’d had a couple of drinks, so I didn’t really think to ask the question. He definitely wanted to fight at 178, which is kind of a curious weight. But there you go, there’s another potential name.”

Perhaps Diaz is looking to get an advantage on the larger Bisping by forcing him to cut an unusually large amount of weight, but it is a curious suggestion given that ‘The Count’ is finally the UFC middleweight champion and that appears to be what everyone is chasing him for.

The older Diaz brother will be eligible to return from his marijuana-based NSAC suspension this August, and it’s no secret that some big fights will await him despite the fact that he hasn’t won a UFC fight since 2011 – yes, 2011. Just don’t count Michael Bisping as one of them, because with a full queue of competitors chomping at the bit to get a chance at his 185-pound title, it’s almost impossible to see ‘The Count’ even considering a drop down to 178 pounds.

Stranger things have happened, I guess.

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Michael Bisping Fires Back At Nick Diaz, Open To Fight

By now, most of us have seen the highly controversial moment in this past weekend’s (February 27, 2016) UFC Fight Night 84 main event between Anderson Silva and Michael Bisping. Near the tail end of the third round, Bisping dropped his mouth piece, and quickly looked to referee Herb Dean for a stoppage in the

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By now, most of us have seen the highly controversial moment in this past weekend’s (February 27, 2016) UFC Fight Night 84 main event between Anderson Silva and Michael Bisping.

Near the tail end of the third round, Bisping dropped his mouth piece, and quickly looked to referee Herb Dean for a stoppage in the action. Silva saw this as a wide open opportunity, and quickly pounced on his opponent.

After landing a few solid shots, “The Spider” unleashed a brutal flying knee that drilled Bisping flush on the chin, sending “The Count” crashing to the canvas as the bell rung.

Many, including Silva, felt as if the fight was over, but Dean elected to keep the fight going. Bisping would recover and end up winning a unanimous decision victory.

In the aftermath of the bout, outspoken, but currently suspended UFC welterweight and middleweight Nick Diaz took to twitter, sending out a meme regarding Bisping:

Apparently “The Count” has caught wind of Diaz’s comment. Bisping proceeded to send out a series of tweets firing back while also making it very clear that he’s open to fighting “The Stockton Bad Boy”:

While Diaz is a huge name and a fan favorite, Bisping may be better off looking towards the top of the 185-pound division, as he may be dangerously close to his long-awaited title shot.

That being said, Bisping vs. Diaz would be a huge fight nonetheless.

The Stockton native is eligible to compete again as of August 1, 2016.

Would you like to see these two square off later this year?

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