UFC 120 Main Event: What Michael Bisping Must Do To Beat Yoshihiro Akiyama

If you ever look forward to any fight on a fight card simply for the purpose of importance, you should always look forward to the main event.

I've said it once before and I'll say it again as it pertains to an event like UFC 120: The card may very well be not only the year's most promising Spike TV card, but it could wind up proving to be the most underrated fight card of 2010.

Of course, you all know which two fighters will headline the event, and If you've been to Fanhouse MMA in the past 24 hours or so, you probably know why Michael Bisping is in a fight with Yoshhiro Akiyama in the main event, and not in a rematch of his UFC 89 bout with Chris Leben.

To reiterate my previous statement, if there's one fight you should look forward to simply because of the fight being the most important, most focused-on, and most hyped-up fight on the card, look forward to the main event, which is Bisping vs. Akiyama in this instance.

Now we know Akiyama's background coming into this fight: his Judo skills, his power and the stuff he's done in his native Japan for K-1 Heros.

He's arguably one of MMA's best Judo practitioners, yet he likes to scrap with the best of the best, and this makes him both dangerous to fight and exciting to watch.

Bisping has said that he's expecting a Yoshihiro Akiyama that wants the knockout win, but I do expect that Akiyama would want to take Bisping down at least once in the 15 minute time-frame.

That in the open, Bisping should prepare for a more well-rounded Akiyama instead of an Akiyama that just wants the knockout, because while Bisping may be on to something by thinking Akiyama wants to stand and trade, Akiyama could also take down Bisping —at will, if he does nothing to defend Akiyama's attempts.

Striking with Akiyama isn't much of a problem. All Bisping has to do there is be the much faster fighter, use some footwork and come at Akiyama as the smarter striker.

I don't see Bisping surviving past the first minute of the second round if he tries to fight like Wanderlei Silva against Akiyama, as Akiyama has proven that of all the things he does mind, a nice balls-to-the-wall slugfest is not something he minds.

Bisping can't fight too aggressively because he'll slip up if he does, and Akiyama will make The Count pay for it on his own turf.

The main key here that will make all the difference from what I see is summed up in one word as cardio.

Cardio, cardio, cardio—Bisping has to come into this fight prepared to go 15 minutes with Akiyama, especially if he's guessing that Akiyama will look to finish him off with one punch or one flurry.

Bisping has said that he felt Akiyama was actually getting the better of Leben at UFC 116, and wanted to say Akiyama gassed out near the end of the fight, which ultimately led to Leben's submission win, so Akiyama needs this in mind, too.

If Akiyama really is going to come out looking for an early KO, that could be where the cardio comes into play because Akiyama could hypothetically come out swinging every round, but if he isn't conditioned to go fifteen minutes with Bisping, he could be the one that gets finished early.

The way I see this fight, all Bisping has to do is stay one step ahead of Akiyama in every aspect of the game in order to become the second straight person to beat Akiyama.

If Bisping stays one step ahead of Akiyama in all aspects of the fight, he's got this fight in the bag, and there's no better place for Bisping to get a win of this magnitude than in front of his home crowd.