Rogan: Bisping quick turnaround didn’t make sense
Joe Rogan: “Kelvin is a beast. He’s got nasty boxing and that’s what he showed in that fight.”
Former UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping lost his belt to welterweight G.O.A.T. Georges St-Pierre on November 4 and November 21 he fought a surging Kelvin Gastelum, and was knocked out brutally. Bisping was medically cleared to fight after extensive checking, but on Episode No. 2 of the JRE MMA Show podcast, UFC commentator Joe Rogan described the quick turnaround as ‘crazy’.
I don’t think you should be allowed to fight three weeks after you have a brutal fight like Michael Bisping did with GSP, said Rogan, as transcribed by Mike Bohn for MMAjunkie. He got rocked, he got choked unconscious, and then three weeks later he’s fighting a really dangerous up-and-coming Kelvin Gastelum? Kelvin is a beast. He’s got nasty boxing and that’s what he showed in that fight. He hit him with a beautiful straight jab and a right hand behind it. That kid is just on fire. He’s on another level right now.
Would he have been able to do that if he fought the Bisping who was training for Georges St-Pierre? If Bisping did not have the Georges St-Pierre fight and just went right into the Kelvin Gastelum fight, would the same result have happened? It very well could have. The way Kelvin hits, he’s fast as f***; his hands are beautiful.
Rogan did not blame Bisping, and suggested that The Count’s family, trainers, management, and the UFC had an obligation to consider the potential danger with the fighter.
You really have to protect the fighter from themselves, said Rogan. You really can’t be letting a guy fight three weeks after a brutal fight like that. It just does not make sense. I don’t think it’s smart. I understand the UFC needed someone to fill in on short notice because Anderson Silva tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs and they did not want to lose the Shanghai main event. It turns into an even bigger fight when you’ve got the former middleweight champion right off his loss.
Three weeks later fight again? It’s just not smart. I know Bisping wanted to do it, I know Bisping would probably do it again. If you asked Bisping to fight in a few weeks he would probably do it again. Someone was talking about him fighting in England, probably in March. Boy, that’s less crazy, but still, crazy. We’re basically into December.
