It was announced during the night that Michael Bisping (27-7) has been forced from the UFC 193 in Australia. He was scheduled to face Robert Whitaker but has had to go for minor surgery on his elbow and has been replaced by Uriah Hall on the November 15th card.
A lot of people thought it was a strange match-up to make for Bisping, a nearly 10 year veteran of the UFC. The UK fighter rose to main event-like status after winning TUF 3 due to consistency in the cage and his ability to sell fights.
Over the past number of years he has been matched against some of the biggest and more established names in the UFC like Luke Rockhold, Cung Le, Chael Sonnen and Vitor Belfort. After a 3-4 run between 2012 and 2014 he was then matched against and beat CB Dolloway and Thales Leites.
Back to form and on a winning streak for the first time since 2011 many felt that he would be matched against some of the top ranked in the middleweight division. Instead though he was matched against rising star Robert Whitaker (14-4 MMA, 5-2 UFC) who is ranked 14th in the UFC at middleweight. The TUF Smashes winner also only made his middleweight debut last year and has won two fights at that weight, both TKO’s.
It seemed like a strange fight for Bisping especially when the UFC are returning to London for the first time in a couple of years in February. But now with this minor surgery ruling him out of the Australian card it leaves him free and wide open for February it seems as his return time is expected to be fairly quick.
Names like Lyoto Machida, Anderson Silva and even Gegard Mousasi have been mentioned as possible match-ups for ‘The Count’ and if any of them are true then Australia’s loss could be England’s gain.
UFC 193 takes place in Melbourne, Australia on November 15th and UFC London will take place in the o2 Arena on February 27th.