This past month saw perennial top 10 middleweight Michael Bisping, defeat CB Dollaway in a tough, but clear cut decision at UFC 186. After the fight, Bisping hit the microphone to inform us all that he was ‘going nowhere’ and that he ‘will be champion’.
Most of us take no notice, after all most fighters say such things post victory and I’m sure some of them even mean it. There seems to be something setting Bisping apart from the others; when you see the fire in his eyes and the way he conveys his intentions with such veracity, it makes you wonder if he knows something you don’t.
MICHAEL BISPING – A PREDICTOR’S DREAM
When Bisping is booked to fight, you pretty much know two things. You are going to get non-stop action and you’re more often than not going to be able to predict the result. Did anyone really believe Dollaway had it in him to stop Bisping? It seems every time ‘The Count’ fights I can predict the outcome with some 90% accuracy.
If he faces a real finisher, he is done. Outside of that he has the engine and skill set to out-point most fighters in the middleweight division. That’s the problem. The middleweight top five are all killers. Most of them would see off Bisping inside two rounds. Some already have. So why does Bisping still have that fire burning in him so strongly after nine years in the UFC, having lost every number one contender fight he has ever been in?
Take another example: Brendan Schaub had UFC color-commentator Joe Rogan on his pod cast ‘The Fighter and the Kid’ following his loss to Travis Browne last year. What followed blew up the MMA community. With all the love and compassion he could muster Rogan proceeded to tell ‘Big Brown’ that he just didn’t see him ever making it to the top. Rogan said that his skill set was just not good enough to beat the likes of Junior dos Santos or Cain Velasquez.
Holding back the tears, Schaub still maintained he felt he had it in him to hold the belt one day, and that he wholeheartedly believed he would succeed. Despite his good friend and UFC aficionado telling him to call it a day, and despite being handily beaten by top 5 heavyweight Travis Browne, Schaub still burns with not only the desire to compete, but the drive get to the top.
BEING GOOD vs BEING GOOD ENOUGH
There are many fighters like Bisping and Schaub. They are good, very good, but is that enough? With a roster exceeding 550 fighters, and 10 straps up for grabs, there are a great number of fighters that won’t ever make it. There are a lot fighters that will end up ‘one and done’, and even more fighters that can only dream of setting foot inside the Octagon, regardless of the result.
The terms Gatekeeper and Journeyman are used a lot in combat sports, but where would we be without them? The purpose of all sport is to strive to be number one, and as you climb that ladder you have to step on the person below. There is always someone who finishes last in Formula One, always a team at the foot of the table come the end of the season, and always a fighter at the bottom of the rankings striving to be the best.
Their chances of getting there are slim, but it’s the drive and heart of these fighters that makes me tune in to fight after fight, in the early hours of the morning. It is a drive that most of us cannot comprehend. The sort of drive that launches a veteran fighter like Robbie Lawler from relative obscurity to the glittering heights of UFC Welterweight Champion.
Michael Bisping is good, but sometimes, just being good is never going to be enough. When Michael Bisping grabs the microphone, glares in the camera and tells me he will be champion one day – who the hell am I to argue with the man.
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