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In a recent interview, Michael Bisping said that his fight with Brian Stann is the real main event of UFC 152. Saying, "No one cares about little flyweights," Bisping said he and Stann were above the night's headliner in Joseph Benavidez vs. Demetrious Johnson for the UFC Flyweight Title. This is just a stupid thing to say. For starters, they're two of the best flyweights in the world, Bisping is a middle of the road middleweight, and Benavidez and Johnson are also fighting for a title.
Bisping also believes that if he wins this fight against Stann he deserves the next shot at Anderson Silva. He chooses to discount his decision loss to Chael Sonnen last January, and while it's true that there's not exactly a line of contenders out the door who deserve a shot at Silva, Bisping hasn't been especially impressive. I personally think that Stann goes out there and knocks him out, but if Bisping were to win in impressive fashion, I guess a title shot wouldn't be out of the question. He wouldn't be my first choice, but I could live with it.
The point is, title fights are always the main event. They're what everyone is fighting for. For Bisping to disrespect guys who have earned a title shot as opposed to just whining about earning one himself is just wrong. Some will say he's just trying to sell a fight, but unless Bisping plans on fighting either Benavidez or Johnson and proving me right that they would win, what's the point? There are still far too many people out there who equate size with greatness, and as a fighter Bisping should make it his job to try to educate those people into realizing that size is only one factor that determines how successful a fighter can be.
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Another thing that Michael Bisping said during his little stump speech for his fight against Brian Stann was theirs was a fight between two big, hard-hitting guys and that someone was getting knocked out, but it wasn't going to be him. I only wish I was drinking water while I heard that so I could have done a spit-take. I don't know what makes Bisping believe that he's hard-hitting, but I believe the facts speak against him.
It's true that Bisping does have a lot of TKO stoppages, but those are stoppages where the ref steps in because Bisping is connecting with punch after punch. I'll give Bisping plenty of credit for being a good technical striker, but there's no question that he lacks power. Some guys have C-4 or semtex in their gloves, Bisping has Play-Doh. He's able to overcome that with good technique, but he needs to stop bragging about being a power puncher and come to realize his limitations.
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I gave UFC 149 an 8.5 in my Torch Roundtable, which was very high compared to everyone else, and I think there were a lot of factors in this. I really enjoyed the Renan Barao vs. Uriah Faber fight. I also was factoring in the undercard that aired on FX. I don't feel the need to justify my scores, but I did want to clarify why I scored it as I did. It's true that there were some really bad moments and I was much more forgiving than I usually am. I watched the show with a lot of friends and we were having a good time so that factored in as well. I haven't gone blind or crazy, but sometimes things seem a lot better under certain circumstances.
Suggestions and comments can be e-mailed to me at hydenfrank@gmail.com
Tony Bonello Stephan Bonnar Lorenzo Borgomeo Kyle Bradley Jai Bradney
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