Michael Bisping: UFC 127 Shocking Fallout
By Sean Farrell
I would like to take this time to address Michael Bisping’s actions from this past weekend at UFC 127, Bisping in my opinion is now the subject to the “Michael Vick treatment”, he’s loved and hated to a degree no other athlete has to face except Vick himself. Bisping started out being the “bigger person”, in choosing not to respond to Jorge Rivera’s defamation Youtube campaign against him, but all of Bisping’s tongue biting was just the calm before the storm, Saturday night at UFC 127 at the Acer Arena he committed an obvious and possibly fight-altering illegal knee against Rivera and then turned into a much much smaller version of Brock Lesnar in his celebration after his victory.
Bisping didn’t gain any respect from those who don’t already like him with his behavior and likely further tarnished his image in the eyes of many fans who already hold Bisping dear to their hatred. Following his TKO win over Rivera, Bisping got into Rivera’s face and was trying to force an apology out of him and then told him to, “Go home, loser,” Bisping then spat at Rivera’s cornerman Matt Phinney who also took part in Rivera’s antics negatively portraying Bisping in Rivera’s videos.
Bisping has denied actually spitting on anyone, claiming he “was spitting on the floor to let him know what I thought of him.” The spitting incident regardless might cost Bisping, as UFC President Dana White indicated that “The Count” will be face consequences for his actions. Bisping will be either getting fined, suspended, or a combination of the two.
Jorge Rivera and his camp have cried foul over his loss to Bisping, but not because of the grudge between the two that developed as a result of his taunting of Bisping through video. Rivera took the blatantly illegal knee to the head from Bisping in the first round, which kept him down on the mat for close to three minutes trying to recover,it looked as though the fight would be stopped, while Bisping celebrated his knee to the crowd. Rivera eventually got to his feet from the mat and continue to fight, but he would go on to get finished in the second round by TKO due to Bisping’s strikes.
Bisping has stood true by his statement of the knee was not delivered illegally on purpose, but Rivera isn’t buying as he said “That knee was deliberate, and I’ll tell you exactly how I know this, I went to sweep him, and first of all, I want to say that he was at the press conference talking about how he’s the better fighter, he’s got better jiu-jitsu, better wrestling, but he takes me down, fine. I go to sweep him and he holds on to the fence. He holds on to the fence the whole time. … And then, within 30 or 40 seconds of doing that, he knees me [illegally] in the head. I’m on all fours, he winds up and knees me in the head. Then he puts his hands up, walks over to my corner and says, ‘He’s the Shit.’ Now if that wasn’t deliberate, I don’t know what the fuck is.”
It is very difficult to determine whether or not the illegal knee made a significant difference towards the outcome of the fight, or ultimately led to Rivera getting knocked out, but Rivera said the blow had him rocked and that he continued on in an attempt to back up his words and show he’s a fighter. “I was hurt, man. I was hurt,” he said. “But the truth of it is, I knew that most of the people that were there, were there to watch this fight. I knew the hype was built up, they wanted to see it, and I didn’t want it to end like that. It’s just not in me to quit. That’s not how I wanted it to go. …I would have liked a few more minutes [to recover], but the truth is, they want to know if you can continue now. They want to know how hurt you are. I just wanted to put on a show. I was hurt, but this is what I do for a living, I promoted the hell out of this fight, I talked a lot of shit about this fight, I talked a lot of shit about him, and it’s my job as a professional to go out there and do what I do. … When I was down and everybody’s asking me if I’m able to continue, I’ll tell you exactly what was going through my head: I fight. I have to fight this guy. There’s no way I’m going to sit here and get the W this way.” Rivera has had his three fight win streak snapped and has fallen to 19-8 overall in mixed martial arts.
In Bisping’s defense, Rivera said things that should have been taken with a grain of salt, but ultimately, Bisping was the one Rivera’s comments were directed towards and not anybody else. There is no way to determine how Bisping felt when Rivera said the things he said, maybe Bisping did feel racially attacked as he said before the bout, I am not English and can’t make that assessment, and maybe Bisping should be commended for only throwing an illegal knee and not going further throwing more than one knee or following up with more strikes with intent to hurt Rivera. Even though it only takes one incident to damage the sports image, Bisping could have made the situation alot worse. If this fight took place in Pride FC which many MMA fans still call “true MMA”, the strike was perfectly legal in that organization and maybe the “unified rules” of American MMA are the true cause for the outcry. Although I personally think Bisping should have handled himself in a more professional manner, he didn’t, but who really knows for sure maybe Bisping handled the situation to the best of his abilities.
In closing, there is only one way to get by this incident and that is to not do what other sports do and blow it out of proportion, the incident should be left as just that an incident and not become a scene. MMA Legend Bas Rutten made the same assessment on his Twitter early this morning I have posted his statement below.
On Monday 28th February 2011, @BasRuttenMMA said:
Everybody gets so wound up from words, if he would say to me that my wife had an STD (this is a story that I am hearing Jorge said about Bisping’s wife), I wouldn’t knee him illegal in the head. I would KO him legally, so NOBODY can say I cheated,(because now they can say this) and then tell him that if there wouldn’t have been a referee, I could have done some fun stuff with him.
You have to separate business and personal stuff, the fighter who fights with emotions, normally loses control and loses the fight, you can’t have that. Now people will say, “Yeah, but in this case emotions let him win the fight”. But that’s not true, he kneed him in the head on purpose, we will NEVER know if he could have stopped Rivera WITHOUT that knee in the face.
You can argue all day long that he would have won anyway, but fact of the matter is, you never know for sure, end of discussion. Now there is always that big question.
Now, is it understandable that somebody loses his cool? Sure it is, I just say how I would have handled it, I also know that there are guys who will actually shoot you for saying a thing like that, again, I am not one of those guys.
So, understandable? yes. Bad that it happened? yes. Not good for MMA? Yes.
But it happened, you can’t turn back the clock, so lets stop talking about it so that other people, who don’t know it yet, are not gonna ask “What are they talking about?” And forget that this incident happened.