UFC: What Is It Going to Take for Bisping to Earn a Title Shot?

It’s hard to see a good man turned away, but in the world of combative sports, it’s something we just have to accept. After all, MMA is a sport based on men being turned away; one day you’re the hammer, the next day you’re the nail.

Before we go any deeper, yes, I think Michael Bisping is a good man. Cocky as hell and one of the louder purveyors of smack-talk, but overall he seems to be a good guy in a tough sport, fighting to get what all fighters want: a title shot.

After another setback last night, at the hands of Vitor Belfort, we are left to wonder just how many angles Bisping can approach this from before he finds the formula that’s going to see him win a crack at the belt.

Thus far he’s developed a style that plays to his strengths, and it’s allowed him to win far more than he loses, but if it can’t push him into title contention, then it’s time to mix things up a bit.

Bisping has got a solid base to rebuild from, but what direction is he going to go?

Here are some ideas…

Get Thee to Thailand Good Sir!

There is something about a severe Muay Thai attack that takes notions of safety and throws them right out the window.

It’s hard to anticipate which attack is coming and when; but when employed by a fighter who really commits and has good technique, the tide of a fight can change quickly or it can simply drown them.

Everyone who fights Michael Bisping is expecting a basic combination of punches: the jab and the right hand. Yes, Bisping has much more than that, but he rarely uses anything else with real conviction.

If Bisping were to commit to become a devoted student to the Thai game, he could get two of the most devastating weapons in the game today: chopping leg kicks and a suffocating Thai clinch that is the perfect platform for fight-ending knees to the face.

These are all tools which, given Bisping’s natural gifts and existing foundation, could be used to transform him from a point fighter into a fight finisher.

Granted, excursions to Thailand are not always a viable for a family man like Bisping, but immersion in that world would be a sacrifice that could reap great rewards—like the saying goes; the best way to learn a foreign language is to live it, so it is with the art of Muay Thai.  

Attack with Submissions

As it stands right now, most fighters aren’t all that concerned with what Bisping can do to them on the ground if it turns into a grappling match.

Sure, he can pound them out, but if they get him on his back, there is no fear of Bisping’s guard, or reversals.

It doesn’t have to be that way.

Bisping needs to learn how to be incredibly offensive with his submissions; he needs to be able to chain them together like machine-gun fire, and he needs to have such a firm foundation in the fundamentals that being on the ground is just another opportunity to win.

Learning such a jitz game from JJ Machado would give him serious weapons from just about every disadvantageous position he could suffer on the ground.

Channel Your Inner Tito Ortiz

Bisping, while not the greatest takedown artist/wrestler in the division, knows how to get the takedown, mainly based on excellent timing.

Instead of just using that as a position to score points (or recover if need be), he could be doing his best Tito Ortiz impression, unloading with violent elbows from the top, guard be damned.

It’s a dominant position to be in—be it for two seconds or two minutes—and he needs to be doing honest and violent work to make the most of such a position.

The Best Defense Is a Good Offense

We’ve seen during Bisping’s career that he has a tendency to be tentative at times; that isn’t helped by the fact that his opponents are really expecting no other form of attack than his two-punch combination, and this makes those opponents bold.

Sometimes, playing the waiting game during a fight can be good or bad, but the current state of Bisping’s game gives his opponents too much time to anticipate his timing (and from there plan their own counters) or establish their own offense, usually aimed right at his chin.

Defense is important, to be sure, but by now his game plan is well known and that throws the element of surprise right out the window.

And if that wasn’t bad enough, such a formula limits his windows of opportunity. Instead of Bisping waiting for his moment, he could be putting pressure on his opponents and thus making opportunities happen.

In a fist fight, it is always better to give than receive, especially when you are forcing them to react to what you are doing instead of the opposite.

Are You in or Out?

Sometimes it seems that during striking exchanges, Bisping treats that dangerous area of real estate—up close and personal—like it is quicksand.

Sometimes, when he moves in and out, he moves like he’s in quicksand, too.

Of course it’s understandable; that’s a dangerous place to be, but Bisping is in the hurt business and there is no getting around that.

At the end of the day he’s got to commit to either fighting in a phone booth or at range because as it stands now, he eats needless strikes while moving in close or when fading out into long range.

Throw with Bad Intentions

Michael Bisping enjoys a surprisingly high degree of accuracy with his punches, be it his jab or his one-two jab-straight right combination. He’s become very smooth at landing those kinds of punches, but still he’s not scoring any real knockouts.

If the punches are connecting—and they are—then he needs to really start committing to them—throw them with bad intentions, even if doing so means sitting on your punches so much that you can’t dance away from return fire; there are other defensive techniques for that.

Bisping isn’t failing to do real damage because he can’t, it’s because he’s trying to balance attacking with defending/retreating, and no one can serve two houses faithfully without being mediocre.

Once he found his rhythm and distance, if Bisping were to really start committing to his punches, he’d be doing a lot more damage than he is now.

Add 3 and 4 to That 1-2

Bisping already has a beautiful one-two combination that has helped carry him to victory on more than one occasion.

Now, he needs to build on that and extend it to three and four punches whenever possible. It might sound like a case of “easier said than done,” but Bisping has a half full glass already; now he just needs to expand, because the additional punches are available.

Fighters who get hit with Bisping’s two-punch combinations are not expecting to find him in the pocket once the second blow lands, and he could use that to his advantage.

Imitation Isn't Always a Bad Thing...

As hard as it may be to believe, Michael Bisping has quite a bit in common with Nick and Nate Diaz, namely that none of them really possess one-punch knockout power and none of them have cast-iron chins.

But they also have respectable power (their punches do inflict damage) and respectable chins (they all have been rocked yet manage to recover well).

Given their similarities, their styles of fighting are vastly different; men fear striking with the Diaz brothers, yet they don’t fear striking with Bisping.

If Bisping was of a mind to take the natural resources he possesses and apply them in an offensive way, he would be well served by doing things the Diaz way—not only in the realm of striking, but submissions as well.

Would he be welcomed into the fold at Cesar Gracie’s gym? I can’t really see a reason why he wouldn’t; they have no fighters who would be competing against him at middleweight, and they could get a quality training partner in the process.

There is something about the offensive mindset that the Diaz brothers possess that simply can’t be fully assessed as an outsider; you have to be in there, all the time, before it starts to rub off on you.

Given that Bisping possesses faster hands it’s very possible he could take that offensive style and discover that is opens new doors for him as a finisher, and the more opponents are worrying about that, the better.