It wasn't that long ago that I was pretty certain Michael Bisping would never be champion. I didn't create the "Micheal Bisping Hall of Almost Fame," but the name had a lot of resonance to it. It made sense. Here was someone who was very good, who had carved out a long, enduring MMA career at the highest levels of the sport. A feat of which very few were capable. And yet the story of Bisping, to hear many tell it, was the story of a weak-chinned, soft-handed volume striker, someone who was rarely lauded for his technical proficiency or physical gifts.
That's not to say those descriptions were accurate. To date, Bisping has only been knocked out twice: by Dan Henderson and by Vitor Belfort, two of the sport's most legendary power strikers. Of his 29 wins, 20 come by way of stoppage. Not really the record of someone with a weak chin, or with a lack of pop behind his strikes. But, those broad swipes still held their own ring of truth. And his career was largely comprised of beating the guys who themselves were never "the" guy.
Only one of the 16 fighters he'd beaten before fighting Thales Leites had ever contended for a UFC title, and that was Elvis Sinosic. Bisping wasn't beating bad fighters, but when he fought the very best, he tended to lose. If you look over the UFC stat lines, he holds the record for significant strikes landed, and is on the charts for cage time and middleweight fight length. Testaments more to longevity than dominance. Add in the expectation that, as one of the UFC's first UK stars, Bisping would someday be a title challenger against Anderson Silva and there was a heavy feeling that Bisping was an underwhelming talent.
And if you're the kind of person that looks at MMA fighters collectively for trends and takes a sort of macro-view of fighting, and fighters: by the time Bisping lost to Luke Rockhold in 2014, his best years were supposed to have been behind him. As expected, he hit what seemed to be his stride about 6 years into his pro career, at the age of 31. He won four fights in a row, beating Dan Miller, Yoshihiro Akiyama, Jorge Rivera, and Jason Miller. And he put on a hell of a performance against Chael Sonnen for a close loss, followed shortly by a good win over Brian Stann.
Another bad loss to Vitor Belfort just seemed to reaffirm what we already knew. Even Bisping at his best, in the best years of his career, wasn't going to get over the hump against the few middleweight elite. Nothing that followed in the years after that re-wrote that narrative distinctly. By all accounts Bisping had had a very solid long lasting UFC career which would be something that any fighter could be proud of. He was the king of the "Hall of Almost Fame," the best of the really very good, but not quite great.
And then Bisping beat Thales Leites. It wasn't a beautiful, or inspiring fight. Just another very solid performance in a career of very solid performances. But it allowed the chips to fall just right for a matchup with Anderson Silva. A fight that had eluded the Brit for all those years that Silva had been champion. The title wasn't on the line, Silva was clearly no longer the indomitable force that he had been. Still, Bisping was expected to lose.
When Bisping didn't lose, when he was suddenly on a three fight win streak as a top 10 ranked middleweight, whispers started about the idea that he could get a title shot. It didn't seem likely, after all Luke Rockhold was champion now, and Bisping had already lost to him, badly. But it was a thought: after years of waiting he could get his chance at the belt.
Then Chris Weidman was forced out of his middleweight title rematch with Luke Rockhold due to an injury. Jacare Souza had just lost to Yoel Romero, and Romero was sidelined by a subsequent failed drug test. The UFC had a PPV card just a couple weeks away, and no challenger for the middleweight belt. Well, one challenger...
It turns out, somewhere along the way of decent wins and decent (and occasionally crushing) losses, Bisping had been getting better. A recent partnership with coach Jason Parillo had sharpened his defensive movement, put more snap on his combination striking, improved his footwork. And for a fighter who never really relied on being the more physically gifted man in the cage. Those improvements paid off huge.
Perhaps Rockhold took Bisping too lightly, didn't think about how to beat someone he'd already beaten before. Perhaps Bisping just landed the right shot at the right time. Perhaps he's now, at 37 the best fighter he's ever been. Maybe Dan Henderson will beat him and create his own historic high note to a long career. But, right now, Bisping is UFC middleweight champion. And that in and of itself feels pretty surreal.
Video produced by @caseharts
Written by Zane Simon