As Luke Rockhold's door to the title opens, Michael Bisping's likely closes forever
Famous inventor Alexander Graham Bell once said "when one door closes, another opens" and those words rang true for the main event in Sydney, Australia on Saturday when Luke Rockhold finished Michael Bisping by second round guillotine choke.
The phrase holds a slightly different meaning, however, when it comes to the cause and effect of the result for this bout with both Rockhold and Bisping.
The win put Rockhold at 3-0 in his last three fights in the UFC. The only blemish on his UFC record is a knockout defeat to Vitor Belfort in his debut, and Rockhold isn't shy about why he fell in that particular fight. He fought angry. He fought with emotion. And maybe most importantly he fought an opponent that night on a regimen of testosterone replacement therapy that has since been banned by most athletic commissions around the world.
All excuses aside, Rockhold learned a valuable lesson in that fight and came back stronger than ever before. He crushed Costas Phlippou with a first round body kick to win his next fight. He was then matched up with Tim Boetsch, who he dispatched easily in the first round by kimura to win his second fight in a row.
Facing Bisping was Rockhold's chance to not only cement his standing in the middleweight division, but to also put to bed a rivalry that had been brewing for more than two years. Rockhold decided on a strategy, stuck to it and then put Bisping away faster than any other fighter has ever finished the Brit in his 22-fight UFC career.
With the win, a door opened for Rockhold to move into prime position for a title shot in 2015. He may still have to go through someone like Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza to get there, but that's a mountain he's previously climbed. Rockhold beat Souza to win the Strikeforce middleweight title back in 2011 and he's only gotten better since that time.
Actually the way Rockhold has looked lately, he might be the biggest threat that exists to middleweight champion Chris Weidman's reign at the top.
At 6'3" tall, Rockhold has a slight height advantage over the champion, which few fighters will enjoy when facing Weidman in the Octagon. Rockhold's mix of kicks and long punches coupled with impenetrable takedown defense, could be the perfect counter to Weidman's formidable hands and wrestling heavy attacks. Rockhold has already beaten a laundry list of top 10 UFC middleweights and he's been a champion before so he knows how to shine under the brightest lights possible.
Weidman still has to get through Belfort in February before anyone else will even get a chance to dethrone the middleweight king, but Rockhold will likely be the toughest possible challenge the champion will face in the UFC today.
As Rockhold's door to the middleweight title opened with a win on Saturday, Michael Bisping's likely closed when he fell in defeat.
Bisping has been a top contender in the division ever since he first dropped down to 185-pounds in 2008. He's been in a slew of main events and co-main events over the years while constantly being the most called out fighter on the entire UFC roster. When Bisping fights it's not just another show. It's a spectacle.
He hypes and promotes his fights like few have ever done in combat sports history and win, lose, or draw his opponents always taste what it's like to be involved in a fight with Bisping on the back end when it comes to sponsorship dollars and national exposure.
The problem Bisping now faces is a stigma attached to his career when it comes to facing top ranked contenders at 185-pounds. On three separate occasions, Bisping has been lined up with a higher ranked opponent only to fall in defeat with a title shot on the line.
Now he's gone just 3-4 in his last seven fights and with his 36th birthday just a few months away, there's little argument that Bisping will probably never reach the top of the division nor will he fight for a UFC title during his career. It's a hard pill to swallow and there's zero chance Bisping will ever admit to it, but that's what makes him such a viable addition to the UFC roster.
He'll never back down from a challenge. He'll always be a huge draw. And Bisping will continue to be one of the most talked about fighters in the UFC, whether he's got a gold belt around his waist or not. The term gatekeeper will get tossed around as if it's an insult, but in reality Bisping should wear that like a badge of honor. It means he's lurked around the top 10 for the better part of a decade between the light heavyweight and middleweight divisions and there are very few fighters who can share that distinction.
The chance to become a champion has probably passed him by, but that in no way means Bisping is going anywhere. There are still plenty of fights left to add to his resume and it will probably take less than 24 hours for another top ranked middleweight to start calling him out.
