Last weekend at UFC 199, Michael Bisping shocked the world by knocking out Luke Rockhold and taking the UFC middleweight title. Not many gave him a chance leading up to the fight, given that Rockhold had handled Bisping with relative ease in their last fight a year and a half ago. Heck, even Bisping’s son wasn’t picking Bisping, so that tells you everything you need to know about the late replacement’s prospects.
But mixed martial arts is a crazy world. Bisping came in confident. Rockhold came in cocky. And Bisping left the cage as the first British champion in UFC history. On the same night, Dan Henderson pulled off his own upset by violently defeating Cuban powerhouse Hector Lombard. Henderson and Bisping have history — Hendo knocked Bisping out at UFC 100 in what is still considered one of the most devastating finishes in UFC history.
So it should be no surprise that Dan Henderson is interested in fighting Michael Bisping again now that he’s holding the 185-pound strap. Champions.co editor Erik Fontanez tweets:
https://twitter.com/Nahmles/status/740642353568960512
And it sounds like Michael Bisping isn’t against the idea. Shortly after news of Henderson’s interest went up, Michael tweeted it out to the world.
— michael (@bisping) June 9, 2016
Unfortunately, there are a couple of road blocks in the way of Bisping getting a chance for revenge. Henderson’s fight at UFC 199 was the last on his contract, and the man is a tough negotiator. He actually left the UFC after his UFC 100 KO of Bisping to fight for Strikeforce. And even if he quickly re-signs with the UFC, his record isn’t exactly deserving of a title shot. His win over Lombard upped his record since 2013 to 3-6, so it would be hard to move him ahead of Ronaldo ‘Jacare’ Souza, who has gone 7-1 in the same stretch. Behind him wait guys like Chris Weidman, and of course Luke Rockhold, whom Bisping took the belt off of.
Still, you can’t deny that having Dan Henderson taking on Michael Bisping in the UK wouldn’t be a massive fight, and a nice gesture from the UFC to Bisping for stepping up last second and making history. It almost sounds a little too fun for the UFC, who take their title shots very seriously. Which is too bad because we’d definitely watch.
(Via Champions.co)
