UFC 199 Judo Chop – Never Counted out: How Michael Bisping fulfilled his destiny

The phrase “Cinderella story” gets tossed around often enough in the world of combat sports to have lost all meaning by now. Like most of the things we say when we talk about fights, it is a grandiose cliche. But if there were ever a fighter for whom that term was fit, it is Michael Bisping. “The Count” made his professional MMA debut in April of 2004, more than 12 years ago, and spent more than 10 of those years in the UFC, repeatedly trying and failing to work his way to a title shot. When former champion Chris Weidman was forced to withdraw just two weeks prior to his rematch with current titlist Luke Rockhold at UFC 199, Bisping was finally the right man at the right time. He gladly accepted the chance.

Doubtless the UFC would have loved to make it happen before: Bisping is a bonafide needle-mover, a heel of the highest order who appeals to casual and hardcore fans alike, whether they root for him, or root for him to lose. He has long been the biggest British star in the promotion, a vital link to an MMA market Zuffa has coveted for well over a decade. But Bisping has always fallen short. Too fragile, too inconsistent, and too . . . well, too average to compete with the athletic freaks that have tended to make up the list of middleweight contenders.

So when Michael Bisping, after a decade of fruitless campaigning, was granted a shot at middleweight champion Luke Rockhold on just two weeks’ notice, everyone agreed it was a fight he was bound to lose, just as he had when he and Rockhold met for the first time a year and a half before.

Add to that the fact that Luke Rockhold was supposed to be the next big thing at 185 pounds, and the matchup felt like nothing so much as a ritual sacrifice. In a piece published during the leadup to the bout, my colleague and Heavy Hands co-host Patrick Wyman asked, “Can Luke Rockhold be Anderson Silva’s true successor as middleweight kingpin?” It was a question very much worth entertaining. Rockhold was 31, right in the midst of his athletic prime. Bisping was 37. The fight was to be the final nail in the coffin of Bisping’s impressive but incomplete UFC career.

And then, less than four minutes into the first round, destiny struck. A counter right hand followed by a shifting left hook connected as Rockhold retreated, undoubtedly as confident in his chances as was the rest of the MMA world. The punch sent Rockhold tumbling to the canvas. When he sprang uncertainly back to his feet, Bisping followed with another left, and that was that.

The greatest irony of Michael Bisping’s knockout is that it was Michael Bisping who delivered it. Though his punching power has been unfairly maligned throughout his career, it is a fact that Bisping is not a knockout artist. Prior to UFC 199, his last stoppage win occurred in August of 2014, in the fourth round. To find his last first-round finish, you’d have to go all the way back to UFC 85 in June, 2008. And to find an actual knock out, rather than a technical knockout forced by volume and attrition, you have to travel all the way back in time to Bisping’s six professional fight, over a decade ago.

To say that a Bisping KO defies expectation is quite the understatement, saying nothing for the circumstances surrounding it.

The other irony, however, and the one that most intrigues me, is that the hook is actually Luke Rockhold’s favorite punch. He has knocked down and staggered numerous opponents with that very shot, usually thrown as a retreating counter, including Bisping himself. In turning Rockhold’s own tactic against him, Michael …

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