Rumor: Michael Bisping vs. Wanderlei Silva [Update]
by Zak Woods on Jul 23, 2009 1:06 PM EDT
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MMA Bay is reporting that Michael Bisping (17-2) and Wanderelei Silva (32-10-1) will fight as the main event for UFC 105 in Manchester, England (via 6th-Round).
News of the fight was passed along to MMABay by a source at the Wand Fight Team in Las Vegas, Nevada who revealed that the Brazilian would be putting pen to paper very soon after returning from receiving the key to the city in Pensacola, Florida. It will be the first fight of his career to be competed at 185 pounds.
Michael Bisping is the UFC's most prominent English fighter and many believed that if he had beaten Dan Henderson at UFC 100 than Bisping would be fighting Anderson Silva in a middleweight tile. Bisping was unable to secure the victory against his rival Ultimate Fighter coach but was still scheduled to headline the UFC event in his home town of Manchester.
Wanderlei Silva is also coming off of a loss to former UFC middleweight champion Rich Franklin at UFC 99. That bout was at a catch-weight of 195lbs. and the potential fight between Bisping and Silva is rumored to occur at 195lbs.
UFC 105 is scheduled for November 14th and it is believed that it will be shown in the United States on tape delay.
[Update: Note by Zak Woods, 07/23/09 1:03 PM EDT ]
MMA Junkie is also reporting that the Wanderlei Silva Michael Bisping fight is in the works though nothing is signed.
WKR has re-classified this as news instead of rumor. It was initially classified as rumor as MMA Bay has had some issues with accuracy in the past.
[UPDATE #2: Note by Zak Woods, 07/23/09 2:08 PM EDT ]
Wanderlei Silva's manager contacted Fighter's Only to shoot down the possibility of a fight between Silva and Bisping. WKR reclassified this story as rumor.
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Not sure how I feel about this match-up....
I would have much rather seen Wand get a tune-up fight to ease him into the 185lb division, someone the caliber of a McFederies or even Kang.
There are inherent risks, of course, with putting Wand in against anybody considering how slow and cautious he has been in his last few fights but he needs his confidence back if he’s gonna make a run in the division.
If Bisbing was still undefeated then this would qualify as an excellent way to propel Wand forward. But seeing how Bisbing has already been KTFO’d, a vintage Wand destruction wouldn’t be as impressive.
The problem here is that the UFC is risking long-term damage to the title contention hopes of their two best draws at Middleweight by stacking them against each other so soon.
Either way, this card will draw huge numbers for Spike.
I could see that for sure.
Bisbing has a ton of heat right now and doens’t need his career blown out of the water.
I say Bisbing-Belcher makes for a great fight right now.
If he would have beat Dan...
He would have gotten KO’d by Silva (but in his country, which is worse)
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