It looks like Michael Bisping wants a shot at the best. While most fighters would duck the chance to take on Anderson Silva, Bisping is basically calling him out. First, Bisping must get past Chris Leben at UFC 89 before he can even entertain the notion of meeting Silva.

Silva is on an impressive run, but Bisping feels as though teetering between weight classes will only hurt Silva. Bisping went on to state that fighters go on runs, but no run lasts forever.

A Silva-Bisping match-up would be huge assuming that both fighters can continue their winning ways. Silva is gradually establishing himself as the best pound for pound fighter in the world. Yet, in order to solidify that designation, Silva will have to knock down some more top flight opponents. Bisping could turn out to be one of them as rearnaked.blogspot reports.

Quinton Jackson shocked most of the world when he lost his light heavyweight championship to Forrest Griffin. Less than two weeks later, he shocked the world again with the recent antics that landed him in jail. Now, shocked is the most common word used by mma fighters upon their reaction to the past week’s events.

MMAmania.com gathered reactions from a few of the top fighters in the sport. Chuck Liddell went on to say, “I am shocked over this. It’s really out of character for him.”

Affliction’s Tim Sylvia offered a similar response. “I feel for Rampage. I’ve been there.”

Lastly, Jackson’s close friend and training parner Michael Bisping has this to say. “I’m reeling in shock after hearing about Rampage. I’m devastated for him. It’s not like Rampage. He’s a good guy, he’s a law-abiding citizen. I’m very, very concerned for him.”

The UFC announced its main event for the upcoming UFC 89 which will take place on October 18th in Birmingham, England. Michael Bisping will return to his homeland to take on the original Ultimate Fighter Chris Leben. The two were scheduled to meet on June 7th as the main event for UFC 85. However, Leben was forced inside another type of cage and the bout was canceled.

Leben turned himself into authorities and served eleven days in a Portland, Oregon jail for a violation of his probation which stemmed from a 2005 DUI. Leben served the remaining 24 days of his 35 day sentence on home detention. But it was not the first time Leben found himself behind bars. Leben wore an orange jumpsuit in the past for the same type of violation. Nevertheless, the UFC has overlooked his run-ins with the police and granted him another main event billing.

The fight will be Bisping’s third bout since dropping down to the middleweight division. His only professional loss came in his last light heavyweight fight against Rashad Evans. Leben has also beaten two straight opponents, but his 18-4 overall record is not quite as impressive as Bisping’s.

Even though Bisping did not square off against Leben, he did step into the octagon on June 7th and wound up dismantling Jason Day. He lost his main event billing but will have it back when he and Leben finally do battle. And, barring any prison brawls, Leben will return to action for the first time in over seven months.

Well, UFC 85 is in the books. Many story lines to talk about, but I’d like to focus on one in particular regarding Michael Bisping. As most of you know, Bisping just simply manhandled and ran over Jason Day in an almost effortless fashion. Some will say that Day wasn’t much of an opponent, but while I see where those who hold that idea are coming from, it should be pointed out that while Day is far from one of the Middleweight elites in the UFC, he is dangerous and had an impressive outing in his last UFC.

Bisping is impressive and he seems to be getting more and more aggressive, quick, accurate and yes even strong as the months roll on. Most people agree (myself included) that he’s not quite ready for a title shot… but it did raise the question about who does Bisping face next?

I was part of a round table discussion on this very topic earlier today, and there emerged 2 theories:

1) The notiion that Bisping is 2 good fights away from a title shot.
Under this theory, Bispings next fight doesn’t need to be against a top 5 fighter… but it does need to be against a fighter who legitimately may only be a couple of fights away from title contention themselves. One solid name that came up that I like is Patrick Cote. He’s been on a roll as of late and if he can convincingly defeat Ricardo Almeida at UFC 86, then I believe he would be a good match up for “The Count”. A victory over Cote at that point then sets Bisping up for a fight against a legitimate #1, 2 or 3 contender… leading to a title shot.

2) The notion that Bisping is only 1 good fight away from a Title shot
Personally, I subscribe to the previous idea of Bisping being 2 fights away… but since this was part of the discussion I speculated with everyone else. The question though, if Michael Bisping is only one fight away from a title shot… who does that road have to go through? Surprisingly enough, everyone of the 5 people came back with the same answer…. Rich Franklin.

Now, some mention of a possible Bisping vs Dan Henderson fight have been mentioned… however even a win over Henderson doesn’t leapfrog Bisping over guys like Yushin Okami or the aforementioned Rich Franklin. Perhaps a Henderson fight fits better into scenario #1 (see above).

No, if you buy into a one fight theory for Bisping, the man he would have to fight is Rich Franklin. A win over Franklin opens the door, without any dispute, for Bisping to go on and challenge Silva. We all agreed on this point. However, a major problem arises…

Let’s say Rich Franklin wins that fight. What do you do? Conventional wisdom says you have a fight like this and the winner gets a title shot. That’s fine for Bisping… but what do you do with Rich Franklin if he wins that fight?

Franklin is in a very unfortunate position. He is the class of the middleweight division aside form Anderson Silva… but he’s shown twice that he simply does not match up well against Silva. The UFC is not going to give us a Franklin vs Silva 3 fight as long as Silva is the Champion. It just won’t happen.

Therein lies the problem. Rich Franklin deserves to be fighting the best in the middleweight division… but they can’t let him fight the best, because if he dominates them, the UFC is left with a major problem. There is a proverbial stalemate on the middleweight ladder.

So you can pretty much count out the Bisping “One fight to the title” option because the only win that would legitimately give him claim to a title shot at this point is a fight the UFC can’t let him have

UFC 85 Bedlam “Hughes vs. Alves” Videos

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