UFC Fight Night 55 Preview: Is the Michael Bisping Show Down to Its Last Act?
Being Michael Bisping has always been pretty good business.
You might say Bisping was Conor McGregor before the Irish dandy ever laced a pair of fingerless gloves. After winning Season 3 of The Ultimate Fighterย back in 2006, The Count became something of a unique commodity for the UFC. Not only was he a linchpin in the fight companyโs international expansion effortsโfighting 14 of his 22 UFC fights outside the U.S.โbut he managed to turn most of his bouts into compelling grudge matches, too.
For eight-and-a-half years running, Bisping has been able to tease a saleable fight out of just about anyone. Thatโs a good skill to have in this line of work, though as he prepares to fight Luke Rockhold on Friday at UFC Fight Night 55, maybe itโs also part of the problem.
For whatever reason, this particular feud just didnโt take. No matter how many times we were assured that these two really donโt like each otherโallegedly stemming from an off-the-cuff joke Bisping made years agoโitโs been hard to commit much emotional energy to their back-and-forth.
Not for lack of trying. Rockhold certainly got the full Bisping treatment leading up to their main event bout in Sydney, Australia. The two fighters clashed on TV sets, conference calls and during photo shoots. Bisping called Rockhold names, swore at him and publicly promised to beat him up (which, of course, was going to be the objective either way).
At this point, thereโs just something stale about watching Bisping try to irritate, castigate and intimidate yet another opponent. You get the distinct impression it could be anyone on the other end of that conference callโCung Le, Jorge Rivera, Chris Lebenโand Bisping would be spewing the same vitriol, plying the same tactics to try to get him out of his element and into his kind of fight.
Not that thereโs anything fake about Bispingโs act, mind you. After so many years of seeing repeat performance after repeat performance, we must conclude it is genuine. This really is Bispingโs personalityโgrating, touchy, snappishโor, at least, the one he uses while heโs at work.
Itโs just that, after watching his star begin to fade en route to a 3-3 record since 2012 and his position in the UFC landscape start to slip (this is his second straight appearance to air only on UFC Fight Pass), itโs all feeling a tad predictable.
Hard to invest in any sort of Rockhold-Bisping kerfuffle when you know this time next year itโll just be Bisping and somebody else hurling the same barbs, posing for the same pictures.
No, the most interesting thing about this fight isnโt that Bisping and Rockhold donโt like each other. Far from it. The most interesting thing is that this might well be Bisping's last chance to boost himself back into the middleweight elite.
That role he played so well for so many years? The one where he quarterbacked UFC events all over the globe, while doing his level best to make each one distinct and as interesting as possible? It was yeomanโs work, and it made him a consummate company man, but it never got him to the Promised Land.
Each time Bispingโs high-volume, hunt-and-peck striking style would get him within spitting distance of a 185-pound title shot, heโd let down. He lost title eliminators to Dan Henderson and Chael Sonnen and more recently dropped important contender bouts to Vitor Belfort and Tim Kennedy.
At 35 years old, the crossroad is clear. If he beats the fifth-ranked Rockhold this weekend, heโll get one last tour among the middleweight A-list. It might even earn him another No. 1 contender bout against somebody like Yoel Romero next spring.
If he loses? Heโll fade further into the company of also-rans.
Those are the real stakes here, further heightened by the fact Bisping is going off as more than a 3-to-1 underdog, according to OddsShark.com. Rockhold is a big, dynamic middleweight who wouldโve been a tall order for Bisping at the height of his powers. At the moment, he appears the perfect guy to show us what the brash Brit has left in the tank.
You ask me? Thatโs a lot more interesting than tales of hurt feelings, disposable trash talk and another in a long line of arbitrary feuds.
