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JASON AMADI, MMATORCH COLUMNIST
The beauty of competing in the UFC?s middleweight division is that because of Anderson Silva?s dominance, there are too few contenders willing and able to challenge for the title. Michael Bisping is a solid fighter who will likely continue to beat up on the middle of the pack and because of his popularity in the UK, as long as he?s winning, he?s in the title picture.
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I believe Bisping can, and will eventually contend for the UFC middleweight championship, and sooner rather than later. Okami/Marquardt are in front of him and will for sure get a title shot before Bisping. But beyond them, there is no one in the division who's really above Bisping who hasn't already lost to Anderson Silva. One more solid win should put him in line for the title shot, depending on who he fights and how he wins.
CHRIS PARK, MMATORCH UK SPECIALIST
Michael Bisping will get a crack at the middleweight crown sooner or later, and he will deserve it as well. On the last four occasions that Bisping has entered the Octagon he has put on some of the best performances of his career.
At UFC 105 he showed his heart, bouncing back from his loss to Dan Henderson to crush Denis Kang before dropping an extremely close decision to Wanderlei Silva in February.
Bisping has since won two straight unanimous decisions over Dan Miller and Yoshihiro Akiyama using the stick and move style that he is slowly but surely perfecting. While Bisping suffers a lot of criticism for this style, Nick Diaz is praised while not exactly being a million miles away.
Bisping told me backstage after UFC 120 he will not fight "losers," and he was referring to whomever comes up short in the Marquart vs. Okami battle. It was however, me asking the question and not Joe Silva so the answer may be different should that question be asked after next month's event in Germany.
That would be the natural next fight for Bisping and should he win that and perhaps a dual with Damien Maia next summer; then he would more than deserve his shot at the belt.
FRANK HYDEN, MMATORCH CONTRIBUTOR
It's possible, but highly unlikely. Bisping's lack of knockout power means that he has to fight brilliantly in every second of every fight he has. That's asking too much for someone to be perfect all the time. Bisping can get close, but all it will take is a single lapse for a moment and there goes his title hopes. He could fight his way to a title shot, but it's a very long shot. He would have to win at least 3 fights against top-level Middleweight contenders to get a title shot.
ALEX WILLIAMS, MMATORCH CONTRIBUTOR
No, unless the UFC is willing to give Michael Bisping a title shot without him beating anyone better than fighters at the level of Yoshihiro Akiyama and Chris Leben.� He will never be good enough to defeat someone in the Top 5 of the middleweight division.
ERIC LEE, MMATORCH CONTRIBUTOR
Michael Bisping has been looking very solid since his loss to Wanderlei Silva. But I don't think he's quite ready. I think two more wins against top 10 middleweights and he will be deserving. He still has a lot of holes in his game that his last few fights didn't exploit. If he can manage to overcome some of the top grapplers or heavy handed strikers then he will be right in line fore a shot at the belt.
TOBEN SHELBY, MMATORCH AUDIO CO-HOST
I think Michael Bisping will one day fight for a UFC title; I don?t think he?ll ever win a title, but he?ll fight for one. Considering who he?s matched up with, he might be actually only about two fights away. If Demian Maia dispatches of Kendall Grove, I could see a Bisping vs. Maia fight down the line. He could also match up with the winner of Nate Marquardt and Yushin Okami for an effective number one contender?s match. Really though, if the UFC wants Bisping to fight for a title, another couple fights against legitimate competition ought to do the trick.
JAMIE PENICK, MMATORCH EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
I think there's a possibility the UFC puts him in a title fight if he can pick up a couple more wins. I think a fight with Demian Maia would be next should Maia get past Kendall Grove in December. Then, a fight against perhaps Vitor Belfort if Anderson Silva defeats him. Should he win those two fights, he's got enough stock as the top UK star in the UFC to be given a shot at that point. But, he'll need to win those fights and he's come up short when he's been close to a shot before.
RELATED STORY: Part one of this roundtable with responses from Hansen, Carter, Perez, Hobaugh, Leet, Rowland and Ennis: [CLICK TO READ FULL ROUNDTABLE]
[Michael Bisping art by Cory Gould (c) MMATorch.com]
Source: http://www.mmatorch.com/artman2/publish/roundtables/article_7328.shtml
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