With Mark Munoz injured, UFC President Dana White had to find a replacement for Chael Sonnen to fight at next weekend’s UFC on Fox event. What he decided to do was call up Michael Bisping and see if he wanted to step in on short notice. Bisping accepted and in a blog entry on FoxSports.com he revealed how it all went down. “Dana hadn’t even finished saying Munoz was out before I was planning how to beat Sonnen in my head. I’ve accepted fights on short notice for the UFC throughout my career, but this one is a massive, massive chance for me, and I am very grateful to Dana, (UFC matchmaker) Joe Silva and the UFC. I was already hugely grateful to be asked to fight on FOX, but to fight Chael on FOX … well, there are hundreds of fighters who would kill for this opportunity, and I would have had to be a fool to turn it down. Next week, I’m ready to go all guns blazing. A fight is a fight, and at this level anything can happen, but all things being equal, Chael Sonnen cannot knock me out. He can’t submit me, either. The worst that is going to happen is that he will outpoint me and, if I don’t beat him, I didn’t deserve a title shot against Anderson Silva anyway.” This is a huge opportunity for Bisping and he’s absolutely right on one thing: if he can’t beat Sonnen, he doesn’t deserve a shot at Anderson Silva. And defeating Sonnen is going to be a tough task, because Sonnen is a great wrestler, which is not something Bisping is great at stopping. But it is a fight, and anything can happen.
Veteran MMA referee Dan Miragliotta found himself in the middle of some controversy again in last Saturday’s UFC 142 co-main event between Anthony Johnson and Vitor Belfort. He stood the fighters up multiple times when many thought Johnson had a superior position. Miragliotta defended the restarts in an interview with MMAJunkie.com. “If there’s two guys on the ground that aren’t doing anything or if they’re in a takedown position and they’re just very tired so they’re leaning against each other and they’re not going for a single-leg or they’re not trying something different to change their position, I give them some time,” Miragliotta said. “I warn them, and then I’ll separate them…[Johnson] established position and then just held his wrist and laid on top of him. He had that one real nice, heavy punch that kind of busted up Vitor’s face in the very early beginning of the first round, and then after that his takedowns had just kind of stopped.” I actually commend Miragliotta for standing them up. He’s right, Johnson wasn’t doing anything to advance his position and wasn’t doing any damage. If anything, more refs should stand fighters up who are trying to stall. Bring back the Pride yellow and red cards.
According to his management team at Alchemist Management, the ten year MMA veteran and inventor of the Anaconda Choke, Milton Vieira, is headed to the UFC. The longtime lightweight will drop to the featherweight division for his UFC debut sometime in 2012. This is great news. I’m sure most fans don’t know who he is, since he only fought once in Pride, and spent much of his career between Japan and Brazil. But he’s on a three-fight winning streak, and should be a great addition to the 145lb weight class.
With Michael Bisping moving up to fight Chael Sonnen, that left Demian Maia without an opponent. No longer, as UFC President Dana White announced that undefeated middleweight Chris Weidman is stepping up on just over a week’s notice to that the spot on next week’s UFC on Fox 2 event in Chicago. This is the biggest fight of Weidman’s career. If he can somehow defeat Maia, he’ll be vaulted up the ladder in the middleweight division. On short notice, it will be tough.
The Chicago Tribune is reporting that Pat Curran will make his second attempt at capturing a Bellator Fighting Championships title on March 9 in Hammond, Indiana, where he will take on Joe Warren for the Bellator Featherweight Title at at Bellator 61. This would have been more glamorous if Warren wasn’t coming off a loss, but a title fight is a title fight and Curran is going to bring it. Warren might be looking at back to back losses.
