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Are you buying or selling the prospects of a Michael Bisping vs. Vitor Belfort match-up in UFC?
By Zach Arnold | June 6, 2010
Before we get to the conversational topic of the day, here are some odds and ends news-wise happening…
Paulo Thiago is ready to fight Martin Kampmann at UFC 115 this Saturday and Pat Barry can’t stop talking to Sherdog. Pat Barry is in the semi-main event of UFC 115, which is pretty amazing. Gilbert Yvel will try to hit a right note on the comeback trail.
UFC is publicly claiming that they aren’t giving up on the German market — yet.
I’m not sure why it’s news that the UFC won’t create a Super Heavyweight division, but apparently it is.
It seems that the media worm has turned against Bellator and now you’re getting more “their business sucks” stories.
Paulo Filho fought a heavyweight… and won.
I thought it was very interesting that M-1 compared Fedor’s political aspirations to that of Aleksandr Karelin. Karelin, of course, had that famous exhibition match with Akira Maeda for Maeda’s retirement bout in RINGS at Yokohama Arena over a decade ago and could have been a really huge force in MMA if he wanted to be at the time.
Now, onto today’s chatting topic… From Sherdog on Friday, talking about what to do next with Michael Bisping in the UFC.
TJ DE SANTIS: “Let’s talk about Michael Bisping, where he fits in the Middleweight picture inside the UFC. I think he’s always going to be sort of stuck in that mid-card role. You know he might find himself again in a co-main event but I don’t really ever foresee him putting together a run. If he fights Vitor Belfort, I think he loses to Vitor Belfort. I don’t think that his striking’s good enough to beat Vitor. If Vitor’s off at all then maybe he could win but I don’t think he has the power to really put Vitor out and really, I just like Vitor’s technique. If Vitor wanted to go back to that old ground ‘n pound style of Vitor Belfort that we saw in PRIDE a little bit, I think he’d maybe take down Michael Bisping and grind out a top game, too. I mean I don’t think it’s likely but I just really when I look at Vitor Beflort against Michael Bisping on paper, I have a real hard time seeing Bisping winning in really any fashion.”
JACK ENCARNACAO: “I would agree. I think it’s a bit closer than that. I think Bisping, if he does get taken down, is actually very underrated in the wall walk and get-back-up department and I don’t know you know how long he’ll be a sitting duck for the ground ‘n pound. I think Belfort’s legendary fast hands might serve like if Bisping circles the wrong way ala Dan Henderson we know where that’s headed. But you know, Bisping has very, once he gets settled and once he gets a bit comfortable with the punching power of his opposition, he can do very nice footwork, he’s got great fundamentals from a Muay Thai perspective, and I actually can see him you know if he dodges the heavy artillery taking maybe two out of three rounds against Vitor Belfort in 2010. I think it’s a bit more up for grabs. All I know is that the UFC has been salivating at the prospect of him challenging for the Middleweight title and being able to run big with it in the UK and being able to run big with the storyline of you know no Brit has ever won a UFC championship, you know, and we’re going to blow the roof off the place and you know when there was a speck of hope that he might be working towards a shot against Anderson Silva, there was definitely a lot of crazy talk going on about Wembley Stadium and whatnot, so I think he’s very much, it’s very much waiting you know the UFC’s very much waiting for him to reach that level and whether he can or not remains to be the seen. But the Belfort’s fight is an interesting. I think Belfort might be in a different place mentally right now having expected to face Anderson Silva, having been told he qualified to face Anderson Silva and due to an injury the fght’s off in Abu Dhabi and all of a sudden Chael Sonnen talks himself, well he beat Nate Marquardt impressively, then talks himself into the title fight so I don’t know if Belfort’s going to consider himself benched until that shot is for him that he got in the first place or if you know he’s going to be looking for a pay day and a Bisping fight would be interesting to him. They do have a October card tentatively scheduled for London that’s going to be a Spike special but a numbered UFC event kind of like they’ve done with UK super cards in the past. Maybe that needs a main event and maybe Bisping and Belfort makes a ton of sense for marquee value if nothing else and maybe Belfort can be talked into it.”
LOTFI SARIAHMED: “I mean the problem I have with Belfort/Bisping, you want to think that at some point Bisping’s going to get it and it’s going to come all click for him but you keep going back to the UFC 100 bout and even against Dan Miller, I mean it happened a lot against Dan Miller, too, he just circles the wrong way in the stand-up and he circled right into that knockout against Henderson and he’s lucky Dan Miller didn’t have more stand-up prowess than he did otherwise who knows what would have happened there. If you talk about a guy like Vitor, I mean you know Vitor’s what he can do standing up. Whether or not it’s diminished at all based on his age, based on his time in the game, well I mean it’s debatable but a bout like that and a guy with Bisping who has shown that he has some very very troubling deficiencies to that extent, I mean it’s hard to favor Bisping in a fight like that. Would it be close? Maybe, I don’t know, but hard for me to pick Bisping.”
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 16 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
I think this is a good idea to introduce Vitor to people who weren’t watching in 2004 before he fights Silva (or Sonnen.) He’s already been forgotten since he has been out for months and Sonnen has been accepted as a worthy challenger to Silva. People hate Bisping, if Vitor knocks him out he’ll be hailed as a hero, warm hearts by thanking Jesus and his mama, and then be in a better position to have fan interest in a Silva fight than if he went into it cold. And if Bisping shocks everybody by actually winning and not just being cannon fodder, then he’s elevated as well.
1. Bellator wasn’t even on for me last week. This week is a highlights show. And far too often I have missed the first 30 minutes due to a basketball talking heads show. I was at the Mohegan Sun show. The attendance was noticably down from the 2 previous shows from the 1st season.
2. Super Heavyweight Division is useless. When guys like Lesnar and Carwin can make 265, then there is no real reason to have a SHW Division. All it does is allow the big Heavyweights to come in fat…. Like Tim Sylvia recently. There is a real benefit to forcing the guys to keep their weight down and be in shape.
3. Karelin would have never been good at MMA. His skills didn’t translate over well. He was a great Greco competitor. But getting punched in the face would have been his complete downfall.
4. Chael Sonnen never talked himself into a title fight. He beat Filho, Okami, and Marquardt. That is what earned him the shot.
5. Bisping vs. Belfort makes a lot of sense. If Belfort wins, he can get a title shot. If he loses, then they can push the winner of Akiyama/Wanderlei into a title shot. Either way, I’m not overly excited about this division both in the UFC and Strikeforce. It’s just not very good.
6. There is a short clip of Amir Sadollah interviewing Gray Maynard on “Inside The Octagon”. It’s on the UFC’s website. Wow, Maynard came across is a solid talker. After fights, he is probably the worst interviewer that there is. But during this brief segment, he came across as a guy with a personality.
3. Karelin would have never been good at MMA. His skills didn’t translate over well. He was a great Greco competitor. But getting punched in the face would have been his complete downfall.
What evidence is there for this? Are there anecdotes floating around about Karelin not being able to take a punch?
@Huddle, you dont know that about Karelin…its great to make assumptions though…
“Bisping circles the wrong way”
But, against a southpaw wouldn’t this be the correct way?
I’d pick Vitor, but Bisping has an outside chance if he tries to take Vitor down and overwhelm him with volume on the ground. That style is the kind of thing that would probably make Vitor quit if the fight ever got there.
A first round KO is the most likely outcome though. I like the fight.
I think they’re trying to protect Bisping. Vitor will murder him.
I think you’re more likely to see Bisping vs Wanderlei again. Bisping is tailor made for Vitor and I’d enjoy seeing Vitor clobber him.
Karelin would have been great at MMA. Why don’t you think he’d be able to get punched in the face, 45?
It’s all speculation at this point, but I believe that a prime Karelin would have some major hurt on people.
As I said before, if Putin’s United Russia political party wants Fedor to be “elected,” then he will be “elected.” There are no legitimate elections in Putin’s Russia, only the appearance of elections.
Belfort always screws up. Why believe its going to be different this time?
He’s got a real coach now in Tompkins and a real training camp. When he went to PRIDE he was training at a local BJJ academy. Going in and rolling in the afternoons.
He’s also at a weight where people aren’t going to lay on top of him and hold him down.
Except Dan Henderson.
Vitor has every physical tool imaginable, he is just mentally weak. Against Bisping though, that weakness would not come out as Vitor is so far superior in every way to the Brit.
“he is just mentally weak”
This sums it up about Vitor Belfort. I’m not sure Bisping or even Anderson Silva would be the people to exploit this. Chael Sonnen is definitely a guy who would.
How many times have we heard this though? He had a real camp when he went back to the UFC around 2003 too. Didn’t work. Was “back” when he went to PRIDE to be in their GP. Didn’t work. Sometimes he strings together wins and looks impressive. Maybe this is that time. In the end, I feel like its talking about “if Tyson just got the right coach”.
UFC wouldn’t ask Bisping to consider that fight… and Bisping’s camp wouldn’t accept it even if it was offered. We’ve seen what happens when Bisping fights an opponent with power: he runs around frantically trying to avoid any contact. It doesn’t exactly make for great TV.
That’s a ridiculous statement, Vitor has alot of question to answer at MW. Like how is his cardio if he gets taken down and pushed past the first or second round will he fold like he has in the past. Also Bisping has never ducked an opponent you might not like him but to say he would duck a guy who could get him closer to a title shot is reaching.