Bisping to Get Loser of Marquardt-Okami?

In a recent interview with Fighters Only, UFC president Dana White revealed that the next time Michael Bisping steps through the doors of the Octagon to compete, he will be staring across the cage at a top five opponent.
Considerin…

In a recent interview with Fighters Only, UFC president Dana White revealed that the next time Michael Bisping steps through the doors of the Octagon to compete, he will be staring across the cage at a top five opponent.

Considering the options, it’s a pretty safe bet that said opponent will be the loser of the UFC 122 bout between Yushin Okami and Nate Marquardt.

Let’s look at the simple deductive reasoning we used that helped us come to our conclusion:

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Ah, Sweet Irony: Akiyama Implies Bisping May Have Been Greased Up

(Akiyama vs. Sakuraba is a cautionary example of why it’s best to wait until *after* the fight to make an impassioned plea to the referee. If only Palhares had seen this. VidProps: YouTube/AkiyamaYoshihiro2)
Well, this is a switch: Not only is …


(Akiyama vs. Sakuraba is a cautionary example of why it’s best to wait until *after* the fight to make an impassioned plea to the referee. If only Palhares had seen this. VidProps: YouTube/AkiyamaYoshihiro2)

Well, this is a switch: Not only is a Greg Jackson-trained fighter accusing someone else of potentially greasing his body during a fight but it’s none other than Yoshihiro Akiyama, who you may remember was himself outed as one of the greasiest MFers in the game following a 2006 fight against Kazushi Sakuraba at K-1 Dynamite!! The video of that fiasco can be seen at top. Nevertheless, Akiyama told MMAFighting.com foreign correspondent Daniel Herbertson upon returning home this week that the reason he didn’t try harder to take Michael Bisping down at UFC 120 was that the Brit felt suspiciously slimy to the touch.

"I only went for one takedown but Bisping’s body was really slippery,” Akiyama said. Then, apparently even setting off the alarms on his own irony indicator, quipped: “Even if I do say so myself … "

Look, nobody wants to get into another GreaseGate debacle here, so unless Akiyama wants to pursue this further we’re willing to chalk it up as a harmless pot-calling-the-kettle-black-type situation and move on with our lives. Also, not that we think Bisping would necessarily be above bending the rules (See: Him possibly purposely injuring Matt Hamill during “TUF 3”), we’re kind of wary of accusing another Wolfslair fighter of cheating, lest he threaten our testiculars via angry Facebook post.

Gotta say though, if anybody knows what a greased-up fighter feels like, it’d be Akiyama.

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Falling Action: Best and Worst of UFC 120

Filed under: UFCNow that we’ve all had a chance to vent about how and when we saw UFC 120, let’s all make like elected officials under investigation and put aside what we knew and when we knew it so that we might discuss what actually happened in Londo…

Filed under:

Now that we’ve all had a chance to vent about how and when we saw UFC 120, let’s all make like elected officials under investigation and put aside what we knew and when we knew it so that we might discuss what actually happened in London this weekend.

Maybe it wasn’t such a great night for most of the British fighters on the main card, but the event still got a great reaction from the always enthusiastic U.K. crowd, even if there weren’t quite as many soccer chants and sing-alongs as I’d like.

But enough with the preamble. Let’s take a look at the biggest winners, losers, and everything in between from UFC 120.

UFC 120 Post-Fight Interviews: Michael Bisping, Dan Hardy, Dana White

Some more on-the-scene videos from our good friends at kimura.se: First up, Michael Bisping promises that Yoshihiro "Ironhead" Akiyama would have eventually gone down if it were a five-round fight, but says there’s no shame in not being …

Some more on-the-scene videos from our good friends at kimura.se: First up, Michael Bisping promises that Yoshihiro "Ironhead" Akiyama would have eventually gone down if it were a five-round fight, but says there’s no shame in not being able to put him away. He calls Mark Kinney the best boxing coach he’s ever worked with, and feels that he’s finally putting Mark’s lessons into practice. As for his future, the Count still has his eyes on the prize. "I’ve been around for a long time now, I’m not getting any younger," Bisping says. "Now it’s time to do it, it’s time to put in a run for a title and hopefully get the gold."

After the jump, Dan Hardy reflects on his knockout loss against Carlos Condit, and our BFF Dana White discusses educating new markets on MMA, the question of "morality" that jackass politicians bring up around the world, and the new "GSP is bigger than Gretzky" talking point he’s been testing out recently. For lots more UFC 120 interviews, check out youtube.com/kimurase.

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UFC 120 Live Blog: Michael Bisping vs. Yoshihiro Akiyama Updates

Filed under: UFCThis is the UFC 120 live blog for Michael Bisping vs. Yoshihiro Akiyama, the main event of tonight’s Spike TV event from the O2 Arena in London, England.

Bisping (19-3) is coming off a win over Dan Miller at UFC 114 in May. Akiyama (13…

Filed under:

This is the UFC 120 live blog for Michael Bisping vs. Yoshihiro Akiyama, the main event of tonight’s Spike TV event from the O2 Arena in London, England.

Bisping (19-3) is coming off a win over Dan Miller at UFC 114 in May. Akiyama (13-2) lost in July to Chris Leben in a Fight of the Night.

The live blog is below.

Mike Pyle Says John Hathaway Never Had a Chance

While some fans on this side “of the pond” bemoaned last night’s UFC 120 card saying it was weak, for British fans, who, let’s not forget were the ones, you know, actually paying to attend the London event, it featured several of their beloved stars. Michael Bisping and Dan Hardy are already two of the […]

pyle

While some fans on this side “of the pond” bemoaned last night’s UFC 120 card saying it was weak, for British fans, who, let’s not forget were the ones, you know, actually paying to attend the London event, it featured several of their beloved stars. Michael Bisping and Dan Hardy are already two of the country’s biggest names, love em or hate em, while  John Hathaway has been in hot pursuit (walking through Diego Sanchez certainly didn’t hurt).

Of course, while Bisping outscored Yoshihiro Akiyama for the UD win, the other two British studs didn’t fair too well. Hardy got KTFO by Carlos Condit, and Hathaway, well, the formerly undefeated welterweight ended up getting schooled by the veteran Mike Pyle big time. Hathaway was a heavy favorite to take out Pyle, and after hearing some of the Xtreme Couture fighter’s post fight comments, we’re thinking maybe that was bothering him just a wee little bit (comment via the official UFC site).

“Everything Hathaway’s good at I’m better and tonight I was able to prove that. I knew that coming into this fight my wrestling was better; I knew that my hands were better. I hurt him a few times in the fight; I had him hooked up in some things that nobody’s been hooked up in the UFC, beaten on in the UFC. From my shorts at the weigh-ins, to “Born in the USA” coming out, I just rubbed it in their face and on top of that I smashed their number one boy that they thought was unstoppable. He never had a chance tonight, not for one second.”

Wow. If you threw some money down on Pyle last night, enjoy.