If the Bisping that fought Condit and Hendricks shows up he's in real trouble. And if you think 3 years post USDA will help then I'd say take a shot on him.
There are reasons he retired IMO. His reflexes and explosiveness were already on the downslope. I don't 3 years off will help that.
Honestly what type of fighter would you say is a bad match up for GSP? I'd say a bigger stronger fighter with very good TDD and get Ups combined with a volume striking style with GREAT cardio is just not a good matchup for him
at age 36 he is not super old for mma, really did not take huge amount of damage and always took care of himself. I always considered him pretty honest with his performance and he said he was just burnt out and have out of fighting issues he wanted to take care of, i have no reason to doubt this. I do agree Bisping has great cardio, very good tdd and is a high volume fighter. There is very little out there on training footage of gsp right now, but I would have to think GSp is hungry, only reason he would come back. Does not need money and a very intelligent person. I think he did exactly what he said and went up in weight the right way and took about a year to do it. (i also think he will fight anderson at some point before he retires if he wins this fight or not. that would be a huge money fight, like wand vs chuck) I would imagine they did practice camps, weight cuts ect.. really got a handle on it. doing this for a few big fights, possibly just bisping, anderson...i dont see how conor could make 185 and i dont see how gsp could get down lower after getting so big. anyway back on topic, gsp always won by making the fight go the way he wanted. good wrestler he won on the feet, good on the feet he would take him down. I think he goes for the takedown and control as bisping does have good volume and good boxing. bisping will be taller, but i dont think he will be stronger, the speed you mentioned i think will be the x-factor. if gsp still has enough explosiveness i think he will time his takedowns and get this fight to the floor. If he cant i agree he will be in trouble having a 5 round boxing match. gsp always has had a judge friendly style and they just like him so i can see any close rounds going to him, even though he is the challenger. It is a close fight, but i believe its gsps fight to lose. we know what bisping brings, we know what a healthy focused gsp brings. Dominick cruz who is much the same intelligent, always prepared, always in shape type of fighter came back and didnt miss a beat. even though he is going up a weightclass I believe gsp will return in form. also dont forget bisping has been talking about retirement. said his whole family wants him to retire and then backed off of it. If he loses i think he is done. nothing more for him and no immediate big money fights. he wins he stays fighting to keep getting checks.
I will be on gsp as i dont see bisping stopping him, i think gsp will get him down, some way some how and will et the nod in at least one close round and take the decision. without any big power shots if gsp gets him down the judges will count those for more and get gsp rounds. If gsp comes out slow and old he will get hurt really badly as volume of strikes would be sad to watch, but i have faith that this wont happen.
If bisping does win he will have wins over anderson, hendo, gsp, rockhold, back to back to back to back. really incredible, even though 3 were at end of their careers, considering he was always considered just a contender at best.
