It’s been over a full year since we last saw former UFC middleweight champion Luke Rockhold compete when he was shockingly knocked out by current champion Michael Bisping in the first round of their late replacement bout at June 2016’s UFC 199. Rockhold was then scheduled to face old foe Ronaldo ‘Jacare’ Souza, whom he […]
It’s been over a full year since we last saw former UFC middleweight champion Luke Rockhold compete when he was shockingly knocked out by current champion Michael Bisping in the first round of their late replacement bout at June 2016’s UFC 199.
Rockhold was then scheduled to face old foe Ronaldo ‘Jacare’ Souza, whom he won the Strikeforce middleweight championship from, last November, but a knee injury forced him out. Since then, Rockhold has largely remained out of the limelight, healing from the knee injury and biding his time.
And when he did choose to finally speak out, it was against his employers at the UFC, against whom he said his fellow middleweights should organize a strike after the supremely skilled 185-pound fray was in a state of confusion due to Bisping chasing a bout with former welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre and nursing his own knee injury.
Rumors of a bout with rising contender Gegard Mousasi swirled, but those ultimately fell by the wayside when “The Dreamcatcher” left the UFC and signed with Bellator MMA.
So Rockhold’s return was left in limbo; that is, until this evening (Sat., July 22, 2017) when the promotion announced that Rockhold will return against former World Series of Fighting (WSOF) middleweight and light heavyweight champion David Branch in the main event of UFC Fight Night Pittsburgh on September 16, 2017 from the PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Rockhold was in attendance at UFC on FOX 25 from Uniondale, New York, and made an appearance when his fight was announced:
So the former champion will finally return after a long layoff as he attempts to climb back to a shot at the belt he held briefly. However, it’s safe to wonder just how far a win over Branch, who only recently returned to the UFC and is justifiably ranked well below the No. 3-ranked Rockhold.
A bout against recent interim title challenger Yoel Romero was also rumored for Rockhold’s return, but clearly couldn’t be negotiated. Is it a good idea for Rockhold to take what many feel will be a “tuneup” fight in his return, or will Branch prove that the former champ has actually signed on for a lose-lose-proposition?
When July 8’s UFC 213 from Las Vegas lost its Amanda Nunes vs. Valentina Shevchenko main event the day of the fight, it seemed like the International Fight Week-ending card that with much of the wind taken out of its sails, was doomed to bring in a low pay-per-view buyrate . And according to recently […]
When July 8’s UFC 213 from Las Vegas lost its Amanda Nunes vs. Valentina Shevchenko main event the day of the fight, it seemed like the International Fight Week-ending card that with much of the wind taken out of its sails, was doomed to bring in a low pay-per-view buyrate .
And according to recently released estimates, that’s true. A report from MMA Fighting’s Dave Meltzer put the usually successful midsummer card’s buys at a measly 125,000-150,000, continuing a trend of lackluster-at-best sales for the UFC in the new WME-IMG era. There has yet to be a single UFC pay-per-view event that drew a significant amount of buzz and buys yet this year, compared to last year when numerous cards surpassed the coveted one million-plus buy threshold.
It’s hard to argue that UFC 213 should have or could have done much better, however, as the card lost its original Cody Garbrandt vs. TJ Dillashaw bantamweight tile headliner, and an anticipated contest between Robbie Lawler and Donald Cerrone was moved to UFC 214 on July 29. The late replacement Robert Whittaker vs. Yoel Romero fight for the interim middleweight title was a great fight to be certain; but at that point many fans – and all casual ones – had clearly been turned off by the dissipating event.
The low numbers put the card on par with the worst-selling UFC pay-per-views of all-time, joining the cards that dominant but low-selling flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson headlined. Obviously UFC 213 was never going to outsell last year’s UFC 200, even though that historical event also lost its main event right before it was scheduled to take place. Nunes headlined the card opposite former women’s bantamweight champion Miesha Tate, but the real attraction seemed to be Brock Lesnar’s return against Mark Hunt.
Last year seems like ancient history for the UFC, however, and the while the promotion is expected to bounce back with big numbers at next week’s UFC 214 from Anaheim, which features the long-overdue Daniel Cormier vs. Jon Jones rematch, is on point to be by far the best pay-per-view of this year with three title fights. And of course Conor McGregor will box Floyd Mayweather in their monstrous August 26 showdown that is expected to bring upwards of five million buys and countless eyeballs to MMA. It’s not solely a UFC fight though, as SHOWTIME Sports is producing the majority of it.
Regardless of the outcome, this cant be what WME-IMG envisioned when they paid $4.2 billion for the promotion during the height of McGregor and Ronda Rousey’s drawing power.
2017 is quickly getting away from the new owners, and even with a potential blockbuster like UFC 214 waiting in the immediate future, they’re going to need something special to bring the overall year out of the slums and back into the penthouse the UFC enjoyed last year.
And as recent trends in MMA has shown, that will probably be up to the return – or lack of – from one infamous Irishman. Megastars tend to sell huge these days, and the rest of the roster seems to draw increasingly concerning and dismal buyrates.
On Saturday, July 8, Robert “The Reaper” Whittaker put on a brilliant performance in the main event of UFC 213, winning the interim middleweight title against longtime contender Yoel Romero by unanimous decision. Whittaker and Romero closed out the depleted International Fight Week-ending card with an instant classic, and to hardcore fans, that more than […]
On Saturday, July 8, Robert “The Reaper” Whittaker put on a brilliant performance in the main event of UFC 213, winning the interim middleweight title against longtime contender Yoel Romero by unanimous decision.
Whittaker and Romero closed out the depleted International Fight Week-ending card with an instant classic, and to hardcore fans, that more than made up for the scrapped main event between Amanda Nunes and Valentina Shevchenko.
With the victory, “The Reaper” won himself a guaranteed shot at middleweight champion Michael Bisping and shook up the division to its core. And let’s be honest, because after all, the UFC 185-pound landscape, although deeply talented with top contenders, has been in shambles ever since “The Count” shocked the mixed martial arts (MMA) world when he knocked out Luke Rockhold at UFC 199 in June of last year.
The weight class that had been dominated for so long by Anderson “The Spider” Silva had a very clear structure for many years, one that went like this: become a contender, fight Silva, lose, get back in line.
Then one bad decision by Silva to clown the entire fight and one perfectly-timed left hook by Chris Weidman changed everything, and made Weidman the undisputed champion. It looked like Weidman, an All-American wrestler and crisp striker, would stay on top for a while; after all, he beat one of the all-time greats twice.
But his reign ended when he threw an ill-advised wheel kick at Rockhold and got his face smashed in. And we know how Rockhold lost the belt, which brings us back to Bisping.
Bisping is not a popular champion. He has never faced the top three contenders in the division and was the benefactor of good timing in his title shot against Rockhold after Weidman was forced to withdraw from their scheduled rematch with a neck injury.
His on-camera personality is brash and rude, even taunting Rockhold after knocking him out. His antics, like throwing the middleweight belt at Whittaker’s feet on Saturday night, reminds some UFC fans too much of pro-wrestling.
While some fans may argue that his personality comes from the desire to sell more pay-per-views (PPV), the main issue with Bisping so far has been his dodging of top contenders. His only title defense came against an aging Dan Henderson, who was ranked number 14 in the division at that time, in a very close fight at UFC 204 last October that almost saw Bisping knocked out twice.
Since then, the only other fight Bisping was going to take was against Georges St. Pierre, the welterweight legend somehow fighting for the middleweight title and pole-vaulting every contender waiting for their title shot. The fight with St. Pierre fell through, Bisping injured his knee, and the middleweight division was at a standstill.
Then, through the underbrush came “The Reaper.”
For a while, Whittaker had been a sleeper in the middleweight division who showed a lot of promise but wasn’t quite yet championship caliber. He had a fun fight with Derek Brunson last year, but hadn’t really broken through the top five contenders.
However, on April 15, the 26-year-old Australian destroyed Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza, a perennial contender and one of the best in the division, with savage striking that left “Jacare” splayed on the canvas by the second round.
Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports
The knockout propelled “Bobby Knuckles” to number three in the division and set up a clash with Romero, one of the scariest fighters on the UFC roster. Fast-forward three months later, and Romero has his first loss in the UFC and Whittaker is the new interim champ.
As of today, he’s guaranteed a crack at ‘The Count’ in order to unify the two middleweight belts. If Whittaker looks any bit as good as he did against Romero, Bisping could be in deep trouble.
If the UFC overlooks Whittaker and schedules Bisping for some other opponent such as St-Pierre, the backlash would be swift and fierce, but that is (hopefully) unlikely. If Whittaker beats Bisping and becomes the champion, the middleweight division could finally be untangled, as “Bobby Knuckles” has shown no hesitation when accepting fights. With no lack of contenders in the division, middleweight could turn into the division to watch, and Whittaker could be one of the best champions to watch.
The match ups for “The Reaper” are mouth-watering, but it all depends on the UFC, and – here’s the hard part – on Bisping, who may stand in the way of an exciting new prospect in the promotion. But if he owns up to his allegiance to defending the belt, “The Reaper” could come calling for the polarizing champ from across the Pond.
It’s pretty clear that there is not much love between top contender Yoel Romero and UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping. The current UFC champion is very interested in seeing who will be his next opponent and he sat cage side at UFC 213 for the Romero vs. Robert Whittaker bout for the UFC interim middleweight […]
It’s pretty clear that there is not much love between top contender Yoel Romero and UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping. The current UFC champion is very interested in seeing who will be his next opponent and he sat cage side at UFC 213 for the Romero vs. Robert Whittaker bout for the UFC interim middleweight title.
Following the fight, Bisping ripped up the Cuban flag and tossed it at Romero. Romero lost a decision to Whittaker, so it’s very clear who is the next fighter is in line for a title shot.
Recently, Romero has been calling out Bisping with videos posted to his Instagram. In some of the videos, he was burning the Union Jack and calling for Bisping to come meet him in Cuba for disrespecting his flag. On Monday, he posted a video of himself in Cuba, calling for a fight with Bisping.
Enough is enough for Bisping, who responded to Romero during Tuesday’s episode of his Believe You Me podcast (transcript courtesy of MMA Fighting).
“It’s awesome. I love it. I love it. He’s going around getting people dancing on British flags, he’s burning pictures of me, he’s stepping off the plane, he’s doing videos when he gets off the plane, he’s got loads of Cubans all standing there saluting and talking s**t and chanting, he’s in cars talking s**t – he’s gone off the deep end,” Bisping said.
“Yoel is out of his god d**n mind. I’ve got to say, I love it because unlike some of those videos, it’s awesome. . . Yoel, get over it bud. You just lost the No. 1 contender fight. It’s as simple as that. And you know what, it’s just so typical of Yoel Romero. He can’t man up. He can’t accept it. He’s gotta cheat. He’s got no honor. He’s gotta take steroids.”
During their rivalry, Bisping has repeated accused Romero of being a steroid user. It should be noted that Romero has never failed a drug testing during his Olympic wrestling career, but he did fail a USADA drug test, which was caused by a tainted supplement.
Bisping continued by saying that Romero lost because he didn’t have the heart to win and that he needed to “get a f**king grip” and stop calling him out.
“Listen, I was in No. 1 contender match ups – and let’s not kid ourselves, an interim title fight is a No. 1 contender matchup. That’s all it is because there was no need for a f**king interim title fight, but whatever. The UFC wanted to do one so I said sure, do it, it’ll pump up the fight and make it even bigger when it does happen. But he lost! He lost fair and square. As I said, he laid on the floor, he gave up like a little b**ch that he is because he didn’t have the heart and he let the fight slip away and he lost that fight. But still he can’t accept it. Now he’s still trying to bypass the victory and call me out still.
“I’ve lost No. 1 contender match ups. If I’d have won them, I’d have fought for the title. But what did I do? Did I go to Instagram and call out the champion still and this and that? No, I didn’t. You know what you do? You accept it like a man. Whatever it is in life, it doesn’t go your way, you weren’t successful, you couldn’t pull it off, you didn’t achieve it – you say f**k it, back to the drawing board. I’ll get them next time. You don’t go to Instagram and campaign for a fight with the champion anyway. You just lost. Hang your head in shame. Disappear to Cuba. Spend some time with your f**king family and come back and build yourself back up. That’s what you should be doing not dancing around on the Union Jack. Get a f**king grip.”
“Robert Whittaker will be my next fight unless the unimaginable happens and GSP comes up.”
Michael Bisping is firing back at Yoel Romero. At UFC 213, Romero took on Robert Whittaker in a “Fight of the Night” battle for the interim middleweight title. Whittaker took a unanimous decision to capture the gold. During the fight, Bisping was seen tearing the Cuban flag in the crowd. Romero responded by burning a […]
Michael Bisping is firing back at Yoel Romero. At UFC 213, Romero took on Robert Whittaker in a “Fight of the Night” battle for the interim middleweight title. Whittaker took a unanimous decision to capture the gold. During the fight, Bisping was seen tearing the Cuban flag in the crowd. Romero responded by burning a […]
The feud between Middleweight contender Yoel “Soldier of God” Romero and champion Michael “The Count” Bisping has spilled out of the Octagon and into social media. The Cuban and British citizens have now involved their national flags as means to insult each other. The first offense came at the hands of Bisping, who tore up […]
The feud between Middleweight contender Yoel “Soldier of God” Romero and champion Michael “The Count” Bisping has spilled out of the Octagon and into social media. The Cuban and British citizens have now involved their national flags as means to insult each other.
The first offense came at the hands of Bisping, who tore up the Cuban flag and threw it at Romero after the Cuban’s UFC 213 loss against Robert Whittaker. See here via Twitter:
Needless to say, Romero did not take the disrespect lightly, and was swift to make a video burning a picture of Bisping with the UK flag. See here via Instagram:
Although the message of hostility was clear, Bisping laughed off on an Instagram post of his own, where he posted screenshots of the video with nothing but emojis as the caption. (Via Instagram):
The beef between the UK and Cuba seemed to be over after a lackluster response of three laughing face emojis, but “Sodier of God” was not done with Bisping or the Union Jack. In a profanity-filled, high-production value Instagram video, Romero called out Bisping and challenged him to fight in London or Manchester. See the video here (Via Instagram):
It seems that Romero is campaigning for a fight against Bisping, an unlikely reality since he just lost the Interim belt to Whittaker. For Romero, a lot of things need to happen for him to ever see “The Count” in the Octagon, including Bisping accepting a fight with him, something that has never happened.
The Middleweights has become the division to watch. The feud between Romero and Bisping, the new exciting, young Interim champion and a roster full of killers promises great match-ups. Romero took his first loss but he expressed that he is not done in the UFC, but Bisping’s future is uncertain.
