UFC commentator and former middleweight champion Michael Bisping has given his thoughts on the current state of the promotion and the champions that sit at the top.
As we know, Michael Bisping is one of the most beloved veterans in the history of mixed martial arts. He gave a lot to the sport throughout the course of his career and even now, many years after his retirement, he is still lending his voice to the action both on commentary and in his analyst work.
Recently, there’s been a fair bit of turnover when it comes to the championship holders in the UFC. In addition to that, we have also seen the revival of fighters pushing for a second world title in a second weight class, as opposed to defending their own turf.
In a recent video on his channel, Michael Bisping explained why he isn’t a fan of this strategy.
Michael Bisping questions current UFC champions
“If you listen to all the noise, everybody’s running from everybody. We’ve got Ilia apparently running from Arman Tsarukyan. We’ve got Islam Makhachev running from Ilia Topuria. We’ve got Khamzat Chimaev running from Nassourdine Imavov. We’ve got Alex Pereira running from Khamzat Chimaev. And we’ve got Jon Jones, the greatest of all time, running from big Tom Aspinall. That is the situation if you just listen to what everyone is saying online.”
“I’ve said it many times: you really need to defend the belt in your weight class three times before you even think about moving on, or you need to vacate the belt. Vacate it, keep the division moving, and then you go up, maybe earn a shot, maybe get an immediate title fight if your star is big enough. But this whole thing of winning the belt and wanting to jump ship straight away, it’s getting out of control. What Pereira has done is phenomenal, and if anyone has earned the right to chase history, it’s him, but the general principle should still stand.”
“Everyone’s running from everyone if you believe what you read, and that’s why I had to talk about it.”