UFC mainstay Michael Bisping deserves a title shot before his career is over

image credit – FOXSports

After a close split decision victory over Thales Leites in the main event of UFC Fight Night ‘Glasgow’ yesterday – Michael Bisping didn’t hesitate to call out a couple of his old dancing partners during the post fight press conference. Here’s some quotes from “The Count” pulled by FightoftheNight.com:

“As a fighter, everybody wants to face the guys that have victories over them,” Bisping stated at the post-fight press conference. “Especially guys that have victories for unfair reasons. They’re all taking testosterone replacement therapy, they’re taking steroids, they’re using their backsides like a dartboard. They’re cheating, scumbag m*therf*c*ers. I would love to face them on a fair playing field – test them before the camp, during the camp and on the night.”

“If you look at Vitor [Belfort] when I fought him, he looked like a cross between a power-lifting champion and the Incredible Hulk,” Bisping said. “When he stepped in against Chris Weidman, he looked like somebody’s out-of-shape, middle-aged man, a dad that went to the gym once a week. So it was certainly two different people. I would love to smash his face in and shut him up once and for all and get the revenge. I have no respect for that guy whatsoever. I think he’s a piece of sh*t is what I think.”

“God bless him, [Henderson’s] had a great career, but he was on testosterone replacement therapy when we fought. And the amount of testosterone they were allowed to legally have in their system was just ridiculous and there’s a reason why it’s been outlawed. They used to say, ‘Oh, I have to have testosterone replacement therapy otherwise I couldn’t fight.’ Well, now it’s banned and they’re still fighting, so did they need or they didn’t need it? Well, the fact is they didn’t need it. They were cheating. They were manipulating the system.”

In my humble opinion – Bisping was being far too kind. No UFC star has run into more bad luck when it comes to cheating opponents than Michael Bisping over the years. I’m going to go out on a limb here and just trust Mike when he says he’s a clean fighter; there’s no reason to believe he’s not. If somehow, someday it’s proven that I’m wrong, I’ll eat all of the following words on a sandwich with hollandaise sauce in one sitting.

We’ll start at UFC 100 – Bisping had just come off of a UD victory over Chris Leben, the same Leben who tested positive for Stanozolol following the fight and would be suspended for 9 months. If he had won the fight, it would’ve been turned into a NC. Bisping entered his UFC 100 bout with Dan Henderson sporting a 17-1 record and on the cusp of a title shot. At this time, there were no penalties in place for TRT and Dan Henderson, 38-years-old at the time, was chock full of it. He’d score the biggest KO of the year by landing his patented right-handed “H-Bomb” to send Bisping all the way to the back of the line.

The hard-working Brit would come back just a few months later to put all of the questions about his chin to rest. Bisping finished Dennis Kang in Manchester in front of his friends and family via TKO in a fight that would earn both men Fight of the Night honors.

In his next contest, Bisping would meet Wanderlei Silva in Sydney, Australia where he would come out on the wrong end of a hotly contested loss via UD. While we don’t know if Wanderlei was on steroids ahead of this contest – we know his past suggests he was using more times than not during his career.

Bisping went back to work following the Silva loss winning his next 4 contests earning himself a title eliminator bout against Chael Sonnen, an admitted TRT and steroid user, in Chicago to kick off his 2012 campaign. Why Bisping didn’t bring up Sonnen in his rant tells me that he’s still buddy buddy with Chael. The two men both did in studio work together for FOX and are know as two of the biggest MMA personalities in the game. Still, it has to bother Bisping that he lost another close decision loss to a man who had plenty of help from other agents not only during this fight but during the majority of his career.

Chael would go on to lose in the biggest rematch in UFC history against then middleweight champion Anderson Silva and Bisping would go back to the drawing board once again.

Later on in the year, Bisping would outwork American hero Brian Stann to earn himself a stint as headliner against Vitor Belfort on The Phenom’s stomping grounds in Brazil. It’s no secret that Belfort was not tested in Brazil during his 2013 run, a run that saw him KO Bisping, Luke Rockhold and Henderson with ridiculous head kicks straight out of a video game. With stricter rules and more drug testing implemented by the UFC – Vitor would be forced to take a year off to figure out another way to cheat the system. When he finally came out in 2015 he looked like a shell of his former self against Chris Weidman, lasting just under 3 minutes against the champ in an abysmal showing. Apparently, it didn’t work out for the Brazilian.

Since the devastating Belfort loss, Bisping has gone 4-2. During that period, Bisping scored a dominant victory over Cung Le who was suspended for HGH use following the fight – that suspension was eventually reversed for a number of reasons.

Bisping has a history of selling fights on sub-par PPV’s as a co-main eventer. He’s been able to build enough heat and make enough folks tune in (love him or hate him) during the years, making him one of the most recognizable faces with one of the most recognizable voices in the sport. Earlier, we talked about how Bisping had a 17-1 record heading into his fight with Dan Henderson at UFC 100. Since then, has put up a decent 10-6 record in a tough as nails division at 185 lbs. If you subtract his losses against known users he’s 10-2 since UFC 100 with a 27-3 career record.

As the old saying goes, “If you’re not cheating you’re not trying.” Unfortunately for Michael Bisping, he’s being punished for spending too much time in the gym and absolutely no time with the needle. Now, at the age of 36 as he heads into the twilight of his career, hopefully he’ll be rewarded as we begin the WADA/USADA era of the UFC – hopefully it’s not too late.