Fightweets: Does Michael Bisping stand a chance against Luke Rockhold?

If I told you that Jason “Mayhem” Miller had his latest screwup this week, you’d probably tell me this was just another week in MMA.

But then, it’s not every week that Michael Bisping gets offered a title shot and Stipe Miocic wins the UFC heavyweight title, then goes home to Cleveland and hits a home run at Indians batting practice. So let’s jump right into a wacky week.

Can Bisping beat Rockhold at UFC 199?

@clangford4: In a sport where happy endings are few and far between, how good would it be to see Bisping win the title?

UFC 199 morphed into something completely different than the original plan when Bisping ended up with the middleweight title shot after Chris Weidman had to pull out of his matchup with champion Luke Rockhold (and best wishes to Weidman in his recovery from what sounds like an absolutely brutal neck injury, incidentally).

There’s now a chance that on June 5, we’ll wake up and find both Bisping and Urijah Faber as UFC champions, which is as crazy a thought as we’ve gotten to ponder in quite some time in this crazy little sport of ours.

Now, will that actually happen? That’s a different story. Bisping is on his hottest roll, with four wins in his past five fights and coming off the biggest victory of his career, over Anderson Silva in London. But that loss during that stretch, of course, was to Rockhold. And that submission loss, of course, is hard to forget. And Rockhold has pretty much been destroying everything in his path the past couple years.

So no, I don’t like Bisping’s chances against Rockhold. I picture it ending more or less the same way it did the first time, with Bisping competitive at first before Rockhold turns it up several notches. But that’s still a couple weeks off, so for now, I’m going to ignore what will probably happen when they eventually get into the cage and just enjoy the buildup as Bisping gets to revel in his moment.

@iiFreaks_: If Bisping doesn’t take the fight on short notice does he get passed over for a title shot?

This was very likely “The Count’s” one and only window for a middleweight title shot. Consider the circumstances. Jacare Souza had the best case, but he went into his UFC 198 victory over Vitor Belfort hiding an injury and isn’t able to turn around on short notice. Yoel Romero is still suspended. Uriah Hall isn’t quite there yet. Gegard Mousasi recently followed a loss to Hall with a boring win over Thales Leites.

If Bisping passed on this opportunity, not only would someone else have taken it, but the perfect storm which gave him his shot would have passed. Souza will return. So will Romero. And Weidman. Another big win would give Hall real momentum. If Mousasi looks impressive next time out, that would give him five wins in six fights. Bisping is 37 and been waiting on this chance a decade. He probably would have taken this opportunity on 24 hours notice if that was his only option. If you’re Bisping, after waiting a decade, accepting this fight is a no-brainer.

Stipe’s World

@Andy_Pancake: Chances the UFC let’s Stipe make his first title defense in Cleveland?

If UFC Tonight is to be believed these days, then it’s …

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