With all the talk surrounding Brandon Vera's opportunity to "breakthrough" and defeat a legitimate heavy-hitter in terms of pay-per-view drawing power and MMA skills in Randy Couture, there hasn't been a whole lot of talk in the recent week about the two other main card bouts that have huge implications within their respective divisions.
The first on that list is the middleweight bout between The Ultimate Fighter Season 3 winner and England's first major MMA star Michael Bisping (17-2, 7-2 UFC) and French-Korean PRIDE veteran Denis Kang (32-11-1, 1-1 UFC). Bisping will enter this contest fresh off his devastating knockout loss to Dan Henderson in what was perceived to be a #1 contender bout for a shot at Anderson Silva. Kang enters this match-up following an unanimous decision victory over Xavier Foupa-Pokam at UFC 97 with his debut in the UFC coming at UFC 93 in what many fans consider an upset loss to Alan Belcher.
This is one of the more interesting match-ups on the card because a loss for Michael Bisping would put him a step further back at title contention while also decreasing his stock as an upper-echelon fighter in the division. Kang has yet to live up to the hype of his experience as he holds wins over Marvin Eastman, Akihiro Gono, Murilo "Ninja" Rua, Amar Suloev, Mark Weir, and Andrei Semenov. While the list of wins isn't the most impressive list we've seen from former PRIDE veterans crossing the Pacific to fight in the Octagon, the potential that Kang has is considered be very high by many fans.
Unfortunately, Kang has gone 4-4 in his last 8 fights with losses to Alan Belcher, the dominating Gegard Mousasi, Kazuo Misaki, and a devastating uppercut knockout loss to Yoshihiro Akiyama. The loss to Akiyama was considered by many to be a changing point in his career, a change for the worst. Fortunately, Kang now has the opportunity to defeat one of England's best on his home soil and cut the talk doubting Kang's abilities.
In preparation for this bout, Kang returned to American Top Team from Canada, a move that was stopped during his previous stints in Japan as he wasn't allowed back into the U.S. due to visa issues. He also took some time to train in Brazil to improve his Brazilian jiu-jitsu skills. Kang has stated that this will be a fight in which both men will be looking to prove themselves, and Kang's heavy hands will be something he wants to focus on using in order to test Bisping's recently decimated chin.
Bisping has stated that he doesn't see too much of a problem with Kang's skill-set as he spars with top notch boxer and kickboxers while also holding his own against Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belts in training. Bisping will bring a solid boxing game, decent takedown defense, and an able ground game to this contest, but Kang will bring a history of heavy-handed knockout power and solid ground tactics to this fight. It should be a pretty even match-up on paper, and it'll all depend on how these guys have improved since their last bouts.
Kang has mentioned the fact that all the pressure is on Bisping, and to an extent -- it's very true. Bisping will be under the gun to get back to his winning ways, and he'll face a very formidable opponent in Kang in front of his hometown crowd in Manchester, England. Kang's move back to ATT along with the reports of his training going tremendously well give a lot of confidence in Kang's abilities in this fight. He has a well-rounded game that will easily give Bisping some problems, and it'll really come down to whether Bisping can pick at Kang in the stand-up game.
I'll boldly go with Denis Kang for the simple fact that he has all the work ethic in the world and not the results he has expected in his last few performances. While Bisping has the abilities in his game to give Kang problems, I'm pulling for Denis Kang to prove the critics wrong and make his statement at UFC 105 in Manchester, England.