Photo Courtesy: Nate Lindaman
Middleweight Champion Michael Bisping is scheduled to defend his title at UFC 217 in New York City, New York against former Welterweight Champion Georges St-Pierre in what is expected to be the biggest fight of the year.
Since his first appearance inside the Octagon back in 2006 at The Ultimate Fighter: Team Ortiz vs. Team Shamrock Finale Bisping has gone on an astounding career with big wins and fights along with two close title eliminator fights against Dan Henderson and Chael Sonnen.
Then after eleven years of competing in the UFC, Bisping finally received what he had been longing for when he would step in as a last-minute replacement for former middleweight champion Chris Weidman against then current champion Luke Rockhold (who had previously defeated him at UFC Fight Night: Rockhold vs. Bisping) at UFC 199 to capture the middleweight title via knockout in 3:36 in the first round and become the first English champion in the UFC.
Now that he has one successful defense under his belt against retired Dan Henderson at UFC 204 and looks to add another he has begun to hint to the entire world that his fight against Georges St-Pierre might be his last fight ever no matter what the outcome is. That’s right, his last fight and with that thought in mind, we can only wonder if it will indeed be the final time fans around the world will get to see the Englishman in action at the world famous Madison Square Garden.
It seems like it might be the best choice for him. After all, he is 38 years of age making him less than two away from the big 40 and his ability to take hits might be coming to an end as his last fight against Dan Henderson saw him dropped twice and now that he takes on St-Pierre makes us wonder if this is a good matchup for him.
Yes, Bisping has great boxing and kickboxing mixed with jiu-jitsu, but it does not look like he has enough to stand toe-to-toe with St-Pierre’s boxing and jiu-jitsu/wrestling making this seem more like an easy win for St-Pierre with a bad ending for Bisping’s career.
On a side note, if Bisping managed to pull off another huge upset like he did against Luke Rockhold then retirement would be perfect for him as he not only would have the chance to retire as champion, but end his last four wins against some of the biggest names the sport has had to offer (Anderson Silva, Luke Rockhold, Dan Henderson and Georges St-Pierre if he wins).
Either way, fans have always loved to watch him and no matter what his decision is we will always remember him to be “The Count” that never gave up even when things looked rough or impossible for him.
“IT’S TIME!”
