Michael Bisping compares his title reign to Germaine de Randamie’s: ‘I do see the parallels’

Michael Bisping compares his title reign to Germaine de Randamie’s: ‘I do see the parallels’

Michael Bisping compares his title reign to Germaine de Randamie’s: ‘I do see the parallels’
UFC

Michael Bisping compares his title reign to Germaine de Randamie’s: ‘I do see the parallels’

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When the UFC released a statement stripping Germaine de Randamie of her title, many thought that Michael Bisping fit the criteria as well. Unsurprisingly, Bisping himself disagrees.

Michael Bisping won the UFC middleweight title at UFC 199 in June of 2016. He defended the belt against 13th-ranked Dan Henderson in October, and then...nothing. Bisping had been out injured, and eventually a bout was set up with Georges St-Pierre, who has never fought at middleweight before. Even that bout was scrapped due to another knee surgery for Bisping and an eye injury for GSP. Bisping hopes to return before the end of the year.

So you can understand why some people, when they saw the UFC’s statement about Germaine de Randamie getting stripped of the UFC women’s featherweight title, immediately thought that Bisping might fit into the same category. There’s one section of their statement that seems to apply the most:

“UFC maintains that any champion is expected to accept fights against the top contenders in their respective weight classes in order to maintain the integrity of the sport.”

De Randamie wouldn’t fight Cris Cyborg. So that fits. And none of the top contenders have had a sniff at a middleweight title shot since Bisping became champion. So the comparison makes some sense.

As expected though, Bisping himself doesn’t see it that way. And on his Believe You Me podcast, he defended himself from the arguments (via MMA Fighting):

“I’ve got to be careful about what I say here because I know everybody’s gonna talk s—t about me and say, ‘You’re a f—king p-ssy. You f—king defended against Dan Henderson. You’re avoiding number one contenders.’ That is not what’s happened, motherf—kers. The UFC offered me Dan Henderson, I took the fight and then I had knee surgery. Two knee surgeries in fact.

“The thing about Germaine that always irked me from the very start is even when she beat Holly Holm and won the belt, she immediately said in the ring - because Rogan tried to set up a fight with her and Cyborg - she said, ‘No, no I can’t do it. I have to have hand surgery.’ Immediately after winning the fight she was in the ring, talking to Rogan, ducking the number one contender saying she needs hand surgery. Then, in the post-fight press conference, she’s saying, ‘I think I should rematch with Holly because it was really close.’ So which is it, do you need hand surgery or not?”

Bisping also believes that the division was created for Cris Cyborg in the first place, so GDR not defending against the person the whole thing was built around is very different from his situation:

“It’s a no-brainer. The division - I believe, I mean I don’t have this on confirmation - looks like it was created for Cyborg.”

He does understand where people are coming from though, to a certain degree:

“I know people are gonna talk shit because it seems from the outside that I’m f—king avoiding Yoel (Romero), which isn’t the case at all. I had two knee surgeries, I’m back training now but I still couldn’t do a training camp. But I do see the parallels that people will draw on and call me a f--king hypocrite.”

With Bisping still on the sidelines, top contenders Yoel Romero and Robert Whittaker will face off in an interim 185-pound title fight at UFC 213 next month.