Bisping: Silva looked ‘very beatable’ vs. Diaz
“He had some moments in the Diaz fight where he looked explosive, he looked fast and he looked sharp. But when I watch that fight I see a very beatable fighter.”
Michael Bisping recently appeared on a media conference call to promote his fight with former UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva at a UFC Fight Night in London on Feb. 27
For me obviously Anderson [is] a legend of the sport,” said Bisping, as transcribed by Tristen Critchfield for Sherdog. “He was a longtime middleweight champion and this is a guy that I wanted to fight for a long time. Of course I wanted to fight him when he was the champion. But this is the biggest fight outside of a world title fight right now. Anderson is still a massive name; he’s still a huge draw. I have a lot of respect for him as a fighter. I always wanted to test myself against him; I knew I could beat him. I’m very excited about this fight..
Anderson has always done some fantastic things. He really has captured the imagination with his striking techniques and just his fights in general. If you break it down throughout his career, a lot of the fighters [he faced] weren’t all that: Patrick Cote, Stephan Bonnar. Some of his wins weren’t the best wins ever. He fights Chris Weidman; he lost twice.
Against Nick Diaz, I thought he looked very beatable. He had some moments in the Diaz fight where he looked explosive, he looked fast and he looked sharp. But when I watch that fight I see a very beatable fighter. I don’t necessarily see that he’s slowed down; I always thought I could beat him.
I’m just going to utilize a lot of movement, fight my fight and take it to him. A lot of people when they fought Anderson, they were scared of him. They were beaten mentally before the fight started and you could see that in their performances. Diaz wasn’t scared of him at all and you could see that it threw Anderson off. You’ll see the same in this [fight]. I’m gonna give him the respect he deserves, but I’m not gonna be shy; I’m not gonna cower away from this guy. I signed this contract to fight this guy, to beat him, to knock him out and end his career.
My first goal is to beat Anderson. So I’ve certainly got a tough test on my hands. I said to Dana White on the phone, when I beat Anderson, I’ve won four of my last five, with my only loss coming to Luke Rockhold, who’s the champion.
After this, yeah, I want to fight for the title. I think I match up well with Luke; I would love to get that rematch.
