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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Michael Bisping is continuing his push to get the UFC to introduce an Interim Championship in the middleweight division. The 33-year-old Brit will take on Vitor Belfort in January at UFC on FX 7 in Brazil, and though he's expressed respect for Silva as perhaps the greatest fighter in UFC history, the fact that the Champ isn't planning on fighting in the division anytime soon isn't sitting well with him.
"Regarding Anderson, I surely don't want an easy road to the championship," Bisping said in an interview with MMAFighting.com. "His last fight was at light heavyweight. His next fight is going to be at a catch-weight. When will be fight at middleweight? What if he gets injured and has to be on the sidelines? All that time will have passed. All the fighters at the top of the middleweight division are on the sidelines. We all want to be world champion some day. We work so hard and strive for it."
"It's not there if Anderson isn't defending the title. I'm not knocking him. He's the greatest fighter we have. But a champion needs to defend the title or he needs to vacate it. And when he comes back to middleweight, he should get an automatic shot. Or they should create an interim title. With Weidman out for six months, I don't think [Tim] Boetsch would have beaten Weidman. I don't think he can be world champion. I think myself and Vitor should be fighting for the interim title. Whoever wins it should continue to defend it. We keep the division moving. The division is more stacked than it's ever been but the champion isn't defending the belt."
Bisping would like to see Silva stay in the division and face the winner of he and Belfort, and if that's the case, he's happy to stop running his mouth. However, if Silva moves forward with fights against Georges St-Pierre and/or Jon Jones? That's not going to be met with positive thoughts from Bisping and the rest of the middleweight field.
"If that's the case, great. If he comes to fight, I'll shut the f*** up," Bisping said. "That's what I want. I don't want to have an easy run for the title. If he wants to fight the winner of me and Vitor, that's great. But if he fights GSP and Jon Jones, something needs to be done with the middleweight division."
Penick's Analysis: Bisping's making a lot of logical sense when it comes to the middleweight title picture, and with Chris Weidman's injury taking him out of the Boetsch fight, it's hard to argue against Bisping being the No. 1 contender right now as well. That's not to say the UFC will actually make this an Interim Title fight. They won't. But if Bisping beats Belfort, and Silva fights GSP next, the UFC may listen to his argument a bit more closely than they will right now.
[Michael Bisping art by Grant Gould (c) MMATorch.com]
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Source: http://www.mmatorch.com/artman2/publish/UFC_2/article_15151.shtml
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