Former UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping was serious about fighting Daniel Cormier at UFC 200.
Given that we’re just a few months away from UFC 300, it feels right to look back at UFC 200. The historic event had a lot of good, but also a lot of bad. Famously, the main event between Daniel Cormier and Jon Jones was derailed during fight week due to ‘Bones’ failing a USADA drug test. Instantly, names such as Michael Bisping and Gegard Mousasi offered to step in.
Ultimately, the nod instead went to Anderson Silva. ‘The Spider’ wound up suffering a lopsided unanimous decision defeat to Daniel Cormier in a non-title encounter. While a disappointing fight, there weren’t many great options considering the lack of time. The aforementioned Michael Bisping was aware of that fact as well.
Michael Bisping recently reflected on his near-fight with Daniel Cormier on his YouTube channel. There, the British fighter revealed that he was serious about stepping in to fight ‘DC’. However, he wasn’t chosen, and his fellow champion even laughed off the idea when approached.
“DC needed an opponent right and I tweeted out, I’ll do it. I was the middleweight champion then and I was deadly serious and DC kind of laughed it off. ‘Ah Bisping, what’s he talking about?’, I was f*ck*ng deadly serious, I’ll step in there with you and as we know, it was Anderson Silva. He flew in on a days notice, went to a decision, got beat soundly of course there’s not even a discussion there. Nice body kick by Anderson at the end there, that was all about all he landed.” (h/t MMA News)
He continued, “But, 100% I was serious. Step up, last minute, no training camp, I don’t give a sh*t. He’s gonna take me down, he might pound me out, who knows, probably choke me. It’s another training session and I’ve got nothing to lose. Like I’ll give it a do, come on, let’s go DC let’s see what you got. Listen, he’s a beast, he’s a monster and it wouldn’t have gone well for me but 100%, you get a massive payday like on UFC 200, a champ champ fight, risk-free.”
What do you make of these comments? How do you think a Michael Bisping vs. Daniel Cormier fight would’ve gone?
