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Michael Bisping (25-6 with 15 knockouts and 4 submissions) fought the perfect fight and battered Cung Le ( 9-3 with 8 knockouts) all night long before stopping the 42 year old undefeated Kickboxer in the main event of UFC Fight Night 48 at the Cotai Arena in Macau, China.
Bisping used his vintage volume striking to slowly chip away at Le who was looking to get back into the Top 10 rankings. But the UFC’s 8th ranked middleweight’s incredible cardio and work rate proved too much for the Vietnamese kicking machine as Bisping turned the fight into a personal striking clinic.
Striking Duel
The bout started out with two combatants displaying their striking prowess. Le mixed his hooks with an assortment of kicks while Bisping used masterful footwork and impressive multiple punch combinations. The early stages of the bout was pretty much even until the second round when Bisping landed a jab that immediately closed Le’s right eye.
The eye injury turned out to be the turning point of the match as it impeded Le’s vision and caused him to squint in pain the rest of the way. Bisping quickly worked on the eye and then later targeted Le’s left eye which was also nearly shut closed in the middle rounds. Fighting on instincts, Le tried his best to prolong the bout in the hopes of landing a knockout kick. But Bisping was simply too slick on a night where he needed a win to get back into title discussion.
Looking for First Title Shot
Since winning the Ultimate Fighter Season 3, Bisping has been one of the UFC’s most promising yet polarizing characters. He was a 14-1 light heavyweight who moved down to middleweight and fought two title eliminator bouts. But he lost both fights to Dan Henderson and Chael Sonnen, and was seemingly on the verge of retirement after going 2-3 in his last five bouts. But this win has changed it all for Michael Bisping.
After the bout, he called out Luke Rockhold, saying that “Rockhold’s an idiot who can’t stop talking about me”. The #5 ranked UFC middleweight called Bisping a “douche” in an interview last month and that did not sound nice to Bisping’s ears. The Count said that he wants to beat Rockhold next and go for the middleweight title.
When asked for comment, UFC President Dana White refused to say that Rockhold-Bisping is the direction they’re moving to but said that it’s a fight that “makes sense.”
