MMA Roundup: Michael Bisping, Royce Gracie, Bellator

It’s unfortunate that March is coming to an end, as April is a comparatively-sparse month for major MMA events. However, the 24/7 nature of the media ensures that we’ll never run out of things to talk about, especially in a sport as volatile as mixed martial arts. This time in the Roundup, we’ve got Michael Bisping saying who he’d like to fight next, a possible Octagon return for Royce Gracie, whether MTV2 is pleased with Bellator Fighting Championships so far, and more.

You stay classy, Michael Bisping

Michael Bisping didn’t stick with the contrite, respectful act for long. Fresh off of his admission that he was “out of order” for his antics after (and possibly even during) the Jorge Rivera fight, he’s back to smack talking with the best of them. During his appearance on The MMA Hour, Bisping was asked who he would like to fight next, given that just about everyone in the division has called him out.

Bisping responded that he’d like to fight Chael Sonnen, since Sonnen is the highest-ranked available opponent. In terms of whether Sonnen will be able to get under his skin after Rivera was able to do so with relative ease, Bisping said, “The things that Chael Sonnen comes out with, they’re so outlandish that you can’t help but laugh. Listen, I think he’s brilliant. I’ve watched the stuff from his last fight. I was in stitches. I was laughing my ass off. Even comments he said about me after my last fight, I just had to laugh at that. You can’t not laugh. Of course he’s going to get in my head at the time, but hopefully I’ve learned from recent experiences. It’ll make for a great fight I’m sure.”

Now, Rivera was pretty outlandish himself, but because Sonnen is already known for being a trash talker who can’t really be taken seriously, perhaps that takes the edge off a bit for a guy like Bisping. That makes sense. Bisping did find time to talk some trash about fellow middleweight Nate Marquardt, however. Here’s what he had to say about Marquardt: “That guy, he’s quite a hypocrite. He’s a steroid cheat, let’s not forget that. He’s had points taken away for illegally kneeing people himself, and then he goes out talking about me as if I’m Satan or something. The guy’s an absolute hypocrite.”

Marquardt’s performance itself wasn’t safe from criticism, as Bisping said, “He shits the bed every time he’s in a main event. He’s had three No. 1 contender fights and a title shot and lost them all.” Pretty harsh words, there. I won’t disagree that a win over Sonnen would make Bisping look better than a win over Marquardt, but I don’t know that he’d beat either man, anyway. I’m not sure why Bisping would want to test his takedown defense against Sonnen, particularly in a three-round fight where a few takedowns can mean a loss by judges’ decision. You have to respect his confidence, though.

While you also can’t deny that Marquardt did indeed fail a drug test in the past, it’s strange for Bisping to go all out on that subject while saying that he wants to fight Sonnen, who was recently suspended himself for failing one. Sure, Sonnen’s case was different, but a failed test is a failed test, right? Anyway, the point may be moot because Sonnen’s contract is still “frozen” by the UFC and his sentencing date for his fraud case has been pushed back to early April, according to MMAFighting.com.

Could Royce Gracie compete at the UFC’s show in Rio?

No one thought a whole lot of it when Royce Gracie appeared at the press conference announcing the UFC’s upcoming show in Brazil, as Gracie is a luminary of the sport and seems to be an appropriate guest for such an event, given his history with the UFC and his relationship with Brazilian fans.

However, signs are now pointing toward Gracie possibly competing at the show, as Gracie has reportedly canceled some scheduled seminars this spring, possibly so he can focus on training for a fight in the summer. CagePotato.com learned of the cancellations and followed up by talking to Gracie’s manager, who admitted that they “are talking about fighting this August.”

Gracie hasn’t fought in the UFC since his loss to Matt Hughes in 2006, and hasn’t fought in MMA since 2007, when he beat Kazushi Sakuraba by decision in a dreadful bout before failing his drug test afterward. I’m actually all in favor of his appearing at the Rio show, and I’ve mentioned in the past that I have no problem with UFC and MMA “legends” continuing to compete. However, I would hope that he will be facing someone that he can compete with at this point in his career, rather than a current or up-and-coming star that will simply demolish him the way that Hughes did five years ago.

I don’t see any harm whatsoever in allowing such fights to happen, and I think that with the number of UFC cards we’re getting each year, there are plenty of opportunities to do them. If Randy Couture can no longer factor in to the light heavyweight (or heavyweight) title picture, why should he stop fighting if he still wants to compete? If the fans want to see him or other aging stars, why not allow them to compete against fighters of similar stature? I think it would be fun for the fans and great for the fighters, as well. The UFC obviously isn’t totally opposed; they brought in Mark Coleman not too long ago. Where they messed up is by having Coleman fight opponents that were way beyond him in terms of youth and skill (with the exception of Stephan Bonnar, obviously). If you’re going to feature these guys, give them a chance to win instead of throwing them against today’s world-ranked fighters.

Bellator ratings have MTV2 pleased so far

In good news for Bellator Fighting Championships and the sport in general, MTV2 is reportedly pleased with the ratings that Bellator has pulled in their first season on the network. Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney says that MTV2 has been happy with what they’ve seen so far, even though ratings took a little dip during the third week when the time slot changed and Bellator went up against college basketball.

Rebney is very optimistic about the promotion’s start on MTV2 and thinks that continued success is the key to Bellator’s future, saying, “That week-in week-out same-time same-place channel development and partnership is the key to building a mixed martial arts organization.” He compares it to what the UFC has enjoyed with SpikeTV so far.

I’m glad that Bellator is doing well. I always try to encourage fans to check out their shows, even though so far there has been a lot going on during Saturday nights and it’s been hard to give them the coverage they deserve. The next month is a great time to get into Bellator though, as the tournaments are heating up and there aren’t a lot of April events, especially during the middle of the month. Furthermore, the time change ensures that those who want to catch say, April’s Strikeforce event won’t have to pick and choose between that and Bellator’s event that night.

Quick Shots

–Bad news for Thiago Silva: The Nevada State Athletic Commission says that Silva’s urine sample from his most recent appearance at UFC 125 is “inconsistent with human urine.” This seemingly means that either Silva is not human, which I suppose would be cool but may cause eyebrows to raise about whether he should be allowed to fight humans as an alien, or that Silva provided a falsified or otherwise tampered sample. I guess that the latter is more likely. Apparently, the rumored Silva-Rampage bout for UFC 130 may have been scrapped because the UFC was aware of an issue existing with the sample.

–Dan Hardy hopes to face a similarly-minded striker in his next bout: he’s suggesting Chris Lytle. It would seem to be a match made in heaven, as both fighters have expressed their interest in participating in entertaining brawls. Given how Zuffa responds to these types of requests, I wouldn’t be surprised to see this fight, actually. They’re both coming off of losses, the fight makes sense from a rankings point of view, and it would be a great fight, to boot.

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Tags: Bellator, Chael Sonnen, Chris Lytle, Dan Hardy, Michael Bisping, Nate Marquardt, Royce Gracie, Thiago Silva, UFC