Former UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping has only just lost his middleweight title to Georges St-Pierre, but he’s already signed up to take another major fight on short notice!
Despite having entertained talk of retiring in the build-up to his fight with GSP at UFC 217, the 38-year-old has just agreed to step in as a late notice replacement for Anderson Silva against Kelvin Gastelum at UFC Fight Night 122 in Shanghai, China on November 25th.
For those counting, that’s only three weeks removed from his third round submission loss to St-Pierre in New York City on November 4th.
It’s an eyebrow-raising decision from Bisping, particularly as he did take some hard shots during that fight and indeed was initially dropped by the Canadian star with a hook before being choked unconscious.
Over and above that, he’s also facing a very dangerous opponent in Gastelum who has bested the likes of Johny Hendricks, Vitor Belfort and Tim Kennedy over the past few years, although he is coming off a third round submission loss to Chris Weidman last time out.
Nobody could ever doubt Bisping’s fighting spirit though and so he’s throwing caution to the wind as he looks to try to get back to winning ways as quickly as possibile, and potentially muscle his way back into title contention at a time when its not clear whether GSP intends to defend the belt, or will drop back down to welterweight.
