UFC 127 Fight Card: What Jorge Rivera Must Do to Beat Michael Bisping

If it wasn't for Chael Sonnen, Jorge Rivera might be on his way to being one of the Middleweight division's pound-for-pound best trash-talkers.

Rivera never struck many as a guy who could call out anyone, but then he called out Michael Bisping.

Was Rivera just blowing smoke, or did he truly feel he could beat Michael Bisping on his best day?

Maybe it started off as the former and then evolved into the latter, or maybe it was never the former from the onset.

In any event, it's no secret what Rivera needs to do to beat Bisping this Saturday at the Acer Arena in Sydney, Australia.

Bisping has three key things he needs to win, and so does Rivera—although Rivera's keys to beating Bisping are different from the keys Bisping needs to beat Rivera.

Obviously, Rivera needs to train to go 15 minutes, in case Bisping makes this a grind-out session, but what he ultimately needs to do are the following:

1. He needs to turn this fight into a brawl on the feet. Yes, he's a technical striker and he's a very solid technical striker, but it's obvious that Bisping's edge is in the takedown department and if the fight stays on the ground, Rivera's going to lose.

Hence, Rivera needs to try to keep the fight on the feet and expose any holes that he can in Bisping's stand-up—and there is such a thing as "a hole in Michael Bisping's stand-up," if one knows how to expose it.

2. He needs takedown defense, plain and simple. Like I said, if he gets taken down by Bisping, he's in for a long night.

3. In the event that Rivera isn't able to easily exploit any existing holes in Bisping's game, he needs to use the strengths he possesses in order to create holes in Bisping's game, and then once he's thrown Bisping off, he needs to go in for the kill

Once he's thrown Bisping completely off of his game, it'll be all over for Mr. "First UK Fighter to Win The Ultimate Fighter."

The only thing he shouldn't expect?

He shouldn't expect Bisping to hand Rivera the fight, because if there's one thing Bisping's never going to do, it's punk out of a fight.

A word to all who have downplayed this fight: Expect a Fight of The Night candidate come Saturday Night.

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