Michael Bisping's pre-USADA career reassessed

[Davemeddlehed]

Vitor didn't "disfigure" Bisping. Bisping admitted in an interview prior to the Vitor fight that it was an injury that he didn't get taken care of like he should have.

 

[Blackjack]

It

Since his defeat of Anderson Silva and KO of Luke Rockhold in the post-USADA era, people around here have for the most part accepted that Bisping would have had a brighter career had these changes been implemented sooner. Michael is well past his physical prime and in fact is a middle aged man now. So how would a prime Bisping have done if these new measures had always been in place?

3 years into his career, Bisping, a natural MW, faced Rashad Evans and was more than good enough to keep up with him. Rashad at this point was only 1 year away from the apex of his career when he KO'd Liddell and KO'd Griffin to win the LHW title. Considering the dominant fashion of Rashad's wins, it is quite likely that he was already the best LHW in the world at this point. Despite these odds, Bisping took him to a split decision.
Based on this I think it is likely that had USADA already been in place, Bisping would have gone undefeated at LHW and become the LHW champion. At this point Anderson was MW champion, who we know Bisping defeated, so I'd say starting around 2007 he was the best in the world at two weight classes.

Bisping then moved to MW, and not surprisingly he utterly destroyed his opponents, TKOing two in the first round. He then fought and defeated top contender Chris Leben, who would test positive after their fight despite there being no random testing. Bisping then lost to Hendo, but as we all know Hendo had been on TRT for years now and had an unfair advantage. Bisping then brutally TKO'd Dennis Kang, and was matched with LHW ATG Wanderlei Silva. Silva too is a know PED user, as he ran from a random USADA test and later admitted to taking PEDs. Bisping was winning a close decision until Silva got a flash knockdown in the last 10 seconds and narrowly dodged defeat.

At this point it is 2010 and there is still no clear indication that Bisping is no longer the best at MW or LHW. Especially considering had just narrowly lost a decision to a PED-using LHW ATG. The LHW champion at this point was Shogun, who was very similar to his teammate Wanderlei in that they were both Chute Boxe strikers and LHW champions, known for having legendary gym wars. Bisping's performance against pre-USADA Wanderlei definitely raised his stock.

Bisping then smashes his next four opponents, including brutal finishes of Rivera and Miller, before losing a controversial decision to #1 ranked and known PED user Chael Sonnen, who himself believed that Bisping won the fight. Bisping then defeated Brian Stann before being KO'd by TRTor Belfort, who has seen a dramatic drop in performance post-USADA. This KO born out of deception and cheating, permanently disfigured Michael, destroying his retina and causing it to fill with fluids. At this point, Jon Jones had become LHW champion, but as we know Jones was unable to pass the tests in the post-USADA era so is not relevant to the current discussion.

Bisping then brutalizes Alan Belcher, drops a close decision to Tim "beefcake" Kennedy, and utterly destroys Cung Le, all despite his damaged eye which has required continued medical treatment. At this point two important developments have occurred. 1, Anderson Silva lost to Chris Weidman, and 2, Jon Jones had a razor thin hard fought decision against Gus. However, Weidman lost to Rockhold after USADA had come into place, so we can tenatively use a bit of MMAth to suggest the hierarchy of Bisping > Rockhold > Weidman in post-USADA MW. As for LHW, we really have no way of knowing how Bisping would do against the new wave of top LHWs such as DC and Gus. I am inclined to believe their youth and size would be too much for him to overcome, so to be conservative we can say that around late 2013 Bisping was no longer the best at LHW.

TL;DR: Therefore my reconstructed USADA-prime-Bisping career is: LHW #1 2007-2013, MW #1 2007-present.

BisKing Bless.

Spoiler: Inb4...

There's no point in discussing it; it's all speculation. BTW, TRT doesn;t give someone an "unfair advantage." TRT is a perfectly legal medical treatment to restore normal amounts of hormones to people who no longer produce enough of their own, so if anything, it levels the playing field so that no fighter has to fight with below normal levels of hormones. There is no good reason for USADA not to allow it.

 

[OldBoy91]

Also something no one really talks about is a lot of Bisping ufc TKO's have been a result of him landing illegal blows right before.

And by "a lot" you mean one out of ten. But hey, let's not muddy up a good Bisping hate narrative with facts.

 

[Blackjack]

War Michael. War USADA.

What are you trying to say by putting the word "war' before everything? It's grammatically nonsensical. Simply put, it doesn't mean anything.

 

[chubbman]

King Mike post USADA GOAT.

 

[Heelhook71]

The refferee calling timeout is the only reason a cage fighter should stop defending himself. Was it andersons fault bisping lost his mouthpeice? Why should he care?

If that was Mark Hunt walking away from his concussed opponent like he does so often, i believe the fight would have been called.

Look at how bisping fell with one arm covering his head, no longer intellegently defending IMO.

Covering your head is intelligently defending yourself. The fact he had the presence of mind to cover up, proves he was still in the fight.

No one Mark Hunt has walk off KO'd was covering their head. They were either completely unconscious
or almost unconscious.

 

[Rikishii]

This had me rolling.

 

[copyandpasteguy]

Luck is part of sports.
I like Michael as a fighter, tough sob, but he is a luck box "champion"

Now in a gimme "title defense" against a 45 yr old who's 3-6 in last 9,,, how are they allowing this to be a sanctioned "title fight" ?

 

[synyster]

the MW goat

 

[Martialarts123]

He's truly world class, top 10 pound for pound right now for sure

 

[SuperLuigi]

Bisping did not score a takedown.

knock down. My bad.

 

[johnyboy]

And by "a lot" you mean one out of ten. But hey, let's not muddy up a good Bisping hate narrative with facts.

Haynes
Belcher
Rivera

 

[GrewUpSlapBoxin]

Covering your head is intelligently defending yourself. The fact he had the presence of mind to cover up, proves he was still in the fight.

No one Mark Hunt has walk off KO'd was covering their head. They were either completely unconscious
or almost unconscious.

Anderson shouldve just punched twice more thru his half ass one handed plead for mercy. Either way, was a very awkward fight.

 

[SuperLuigi]

The refferee calling timeout is the only reason a cage fighter should stop defending himself. Was it andersons fault bisping lost his mouthpeice? Why should he care?

If that was Mark Hunt walking away from his concussed opponent like he does so often, i believe the fight would have been called.

Look at how bisping fell with one arm covering his head, no longer intellegently defending IMO.

The fact that he was covering his head to the contrary demonstrates he was capable of defending himself.

 

[GrewUpSlapBoxin]

The fact that he was covering his head to the contrary demonstrates he was capable of defending himself.

Can you tell the difference between a "please dont hit me anymore" cover up vs a "im trying to defend myself"?

I sure can.

 

[SuperLuigi]

It

There's no point in discussing it; it's all speculation. BTW, TRT doesn;t give someone an "unfair advantage." TRT is a perfectly legal medical treatment to restore normal amounts of hormones to people who no longer produce enough of their own, so if anything, it levels the playing field so that no fighter has to fight with below normal levels of hormones. There is no good reason for USADA not to allow it.

TRT exemptions are no longer issued because of the inherent flaws of this system. Primarily, in order to allow everyone the ability to compete they must allow for even the highest of natural levels. In fact they went beyond this and allowed about twice the highest natural levels, which equated to about 6x the T levels of the average man. Furthermore a man with low T is no more disadvantaged than a man with short arms. Its about winning with what you were given by nature.

 

[Fallout King]

If only silva didn't walk away...

 

[Heelhook71]

Anderson shouldve just punched twice more thru his half ass one handed plead for mercy. Either way, was a very awkward fight.

To be fair I don't think there would be enough time.

Anderson has never been that great going forward. He's a gifted counter striker, but not on the same level when he has to push the pace. When he was behind on the score cards I honestly don't think he felt confident moving in in Bisping so he's antics to lure Mike in got more ridiculous.

 

[SuperLuigi]

Can you tell the difference between a "please dont hit me anymore" cover up vs a "im trying to defend myself"?

I sure can.

I associate that more so with turtling. Mike looks like he's thinking something more along the lines of "where the devil did that knee come from?"

 

[GrewUpSlapBoxin]

I associate that more so with turtling. Mike looks like he's thinking something more along the lines of "where the devil did that knee come from?"

If your in a cagefight , find yourself on the floor rocked ,dropped and close to unconcious....and on top of that, your asking yourself what/how? Id say youve lost, and any excess punishment is unnecessary. Anderson felt the same way, too bad herb didnt.