(Also at 411Mania.com)
Michael Bisping lost another high profile fight. It should come as no shock to those that have followed his career since The Ultimate Fighter that Bisping came up short in his quest for an elusive title shot. He’s made a career of it, and in turn, has helped make the careers of other fighters. Michael Bisping is the greatest gatekeeper in MMA history.
Bisping has a career MMA record of 25-7. It’s a record plenty of fighters would love to have, but with those 25 victories comes no significant accomplishments. Sure, he won The Ultimate Fighter 3 (and let’s not forget that TUF actually meant something back then), but even that comes with an asterisk as Matt Hamill, easily Bisping’s biggest threat in the competition, dropped out of the tournament with an injury. Bisping defeated Hamill a year after winning TUF, but even that fight is stained by a questionable decision.
Bisping suffered his first career defeat at the hands of Rashad Evans in a highly competitive split decision loss. A victory would’ve put Bisping one fight away from a light heavyweight title shot, but he came up short. Evans was still a raw talent at that point in his career and many thought Bisping’s lack of size contributed to the loss. Following the bout, he dropped to middleweight where he won two fights before heading back to The Ultimate Fighter to coach against Dan Henderson.
Henderson and Bisping met at UFC 100 with the winner in line for a title shot. We all know how that went. And if you don’t, just google “henderson bisping” and enjoy. It was Bisping’s first title eliminator bout, but it wouldn’t be his last.
After defeating Dennis Kang, Bisping came up short against Wanderlei Silva in another close and competitive decision loss. Following four straight victories, “The Count” found himself in another title eliminator bout against former title contender Chael Sonnen. Once again, Bisping gave it all he had, but was on the wrong side of a decision loss. Sonnen went on to fight for the title while Bisping would have to continue his wait.
Due to the closeness of his bout with Sonnen, Bisping only needed one more victory to get himself back into the title elimination picture. After defeating Brian Stann, the British native met Vitor Belfort. A victory would’ve likely put Bisping as the top contender for the middleweight title. However, the judges weren’t needed this time as Belfort knocked out Bisping in the second round.
Following a victory over Alan Belcher, arguably Bisping’s best victory of his career, Michael was forced to miss a year of action with a serious eye injury. He returned earlier this year and dropped a decision to Tim Kennedy. Bisping once again rebounded with a TKO victory over Cung Le, which set-up his bout this past weekend with Luke Rockhold.
While a victory wouldn’t have earned him a title shot, it likely would’ve put him one fight away, likely against “Jacare” Souza or possibly against Anderson Silva. But of course, Bisping couldn’t get the job done, losing by submission for the first time in his career in the second round.
Let’s run down the list of his losses again: Rashad Evans (went on to win the UFC light heavyweight title 13 months after beating Bisping), Dan Henderson (former PRIDE middleweight and welterweight champion, former UFC middleweight and light heavyweight title challenger), Wanderlei Silva (former PRIDE middleweight champion), Chael Sonnen (former UFC middleweight title challenger, went on to challenge for the middleweight title again after defeating Bisping), Vitor Belfort (former UFC light heavyweight champion, former UFC middleweight title challenger, current middleweight title challenger), Tim Kennedy (former Strikeforce middleweight title challenger), and Luke Rockhold (former Strikeforce middleweight champion)
As you can see, all of Bisping’s losses have come against former champions and title challengers or future champions and title challengers. He’s not losing to scrubs, but he’s still losing.
If Bisping had won any of those fights, he would’ve earned a title shot or been one fight away from a title shot. It’s no secret that the UFC badly wanted to give Bisping a title shot. He was an Ultimate Fighter winner, the first real star to come out of England, and he had the charisma and ability to sell a fight. When Anderson Silva was running out of contenders, they desperately wanted to pair him up against Bisping in a soccer stadium in England.
Unfortunately, he could never get the job done. He could never get over the hump and collect that signature victory that he needed to stamp himself as the #1 contender for the title. Bisping was also the victim of tough circumstances. Guys like Thales Leites, Patrick Cote, and Demian Maia got title shots despite having less name value and equal competition victories thanks to reality shows, injuries, and timing.
There are plenty of gatekeepers throughout MMA history. Plenty of guys who have a lot of wins and few losses, but never got a title shot because they couldn’t collect that signature win or were a victim of circumstances. Guys like Jim Miller, Roy Nelson, Gleison Tibau, Melvin Guillard, Donald Cerrone, Matt Brown, and more all have 10+ victories inside the Octagon but have yet to fight for the title. The difference between Bisping and those fighters are that none of them have had more chances to earn a title shot than Bisping and the UFC probably didn’t care one way or another if they got a title shot because they weren’t adding any extra PPV buys against the champion.
At the age of 35, Bisping isn’t getting any younger or any better. He’s always been a fighter with average tools and no definitive advantage when he steps inside the cage. He doesn’t have one punch power or elite wrestling or world-class jiu-jitsu. From now until he decides to retire, he’ll just be a guy that hangs around in the division; beating guys who aren’t good enough to challenge for the title and losing to guys who will challenge for the title or former champions who aren’t quite past their prime.
Bisping said it best in his post-fight interview this past weekend. “I’m going nowhere.”
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