Chris Weidman calls out Michael Bisping, the champion responds

Once again, the UFC middleweight strap exchanged waists.

“When I beat Luke Rockhold, Weidman can be my first defense, and I’ll shut that (expletive) up once and for all”, Bisping said prior to UFC 199.

Instead, Weidman was getting surgery to fix his injured neck, an injury that forced him to pull out of the 6/4 bout against Rockhold in Inglewood, California. This resulted in a mad scramble to find a suitable replacement to fight Rockhold for the middleweight belt. Souza has so far lost only once in the UFC, at UFC 194 last December, against fellow top contender Yoel Romero via split decision. That opened the door for Bisping to step in on just 17 days’ notice, and the British fighter made the most of it, stopping Rockhold with strikes in less than four minutes. Should he get the call to fight Bisping, don’t be surprised if he’s the betting favourite.

It started as a classic case of being a sore loser as Rockhold refused to congratulate Bisping on his quick win, which led to Bisping walking away with a shiny new belt and the title of middleweight champion.

Bisping finally got his reward for a decade’s worth of work with a first round knockout to become Britain’s first UFC champion.

“I’m sure between me and the UFC, we’ll come up with the right person”. When there’s a big, high-profile upset, an immediate rematch generally means big business. The animosity between Bisping and Rockhold is not gone, in fact, it is thicker than ever before. They were even telling him what he was doing wrong on his jab, which Rockhold blamed for the defeat in the post-event press conference. Michael Bisping waited 10 years and 26 fights for the chance to win a UFC title. I’m going to ride the crest of this wave.

Weidman has since had successful surgery on his neck and he’s already looking to book a title fight against the Brit at the landmark UFC New York card in November. Bisping was a massive underdog with fans and pundits considering how his first fight against Rockhold went – a one-side submission loss back in 2014.

But not turning down a fight and thinking his opponent deserves to be there with him might be two different things, at least if Bisping’s Twitter response to Weidman is to be believed. Bisping defeated Silva despite being almost finished in their competitive five round epic last February. Faber beat Cruz in their first meeting nine years ago, but Cruz evened the series with a rematch victory in 2011.

Certainly his actions after the fight-if he had been more respectful I would have been more inclined but he didn’t help his cause.