| Bisping To Drop To Middleweight |
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| Posted by Rob Curry | |
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Michael Bisping has announce that he is to finally drop down from Light Heavyweight to Middleweight, the weight drop has been called for by many fans now for some time and comes following the announcement that Pride veteran Dan Henderson is also to drop weight class down to Middleweight. “Even though I’ve never fought at middleweight, I’ve gone back and forth with the decision to go down pretty much my whole career,” Bisping said. “Even from my very first pro fight (April 2004), people were telling me that I was a little too small for the light heavies. But I kept winning and, at least before I stepped up to the UFC, I was winning easily so I didn’t really take much notice.” “I’ve not trained in a month and right now I weigh 211 pounds. Actually, even as far back as the TUF 3 try-outs in London (in December 2005), Dana White looked at me and asked me if I was sure I wanted to try-out for the light heavies rather than the middleweights. Then I was asked the same question again when I was invited to Las Vegas to do the interview to get on the show. I’ve been asked about middleweight loads of times, by not just writers, but also other fighters, so I started thinking about it more seriously this year.” “Dana thought it was a great idea, he said I’d be ‘a monster’ down at middleweight. In fact all sorts of people like Rampage were telling me this was the best thing for my career. Really, I knew middleweight was the place to be. When I went to train with Rampage in America over the summer, when we’d go eat he’d have half a lettuce leaf; I’d have a pizza or a couple of foot-long Subways and a couple of sneaky cookies. “Even though I train as hard, if not harder, than anyone else for a fight, I wasn’t making sacrifices like other fighters do. I’ve had world class nutritionists like (boxer) Ricky Hatton’s strength coach Kerry Kayes tell me I could be so much stronger at middleweight, so I was getting this same advise from all sides.” Bisping's decision comes after his last two match ups showed that true Light Heavyweight fighters have that natural strength and weight advantage over him, and that fighting at a more natural weight category is really Bisping only option if he wants to reach his true potential in MMA.              |
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