Tonight was an AMAZING event at the O2 London Arena. I caught the fight on UFC Fight Pass and had to do a play-by-play.
ROUND ONE:
Silva already coming out dancing with his fluid movements and looking very comfortable in the cage. Bisping being the striker he is has very good control with his hands. It seems like as the fight continues Bisping seems to be getting stronger.
They took time to feel each other out for most of the round however, it was still entertaining to watch. It felt so good to have “The Spider” back inside the Octagon and see how comfortable he was in the cage. Meanwhile, Bisping was very smart to not feed into Silva’s game and remain patient. especially during the second round.
ROUND TWO:
With the training styles of “The Spider”, we are used to his creative style. Standing up against the cage while letting Bisping come to him seemed to be a bit frustrating for “The Count” so he decided to take a step back to show that he is not here to play games.
Towards the end of the 2nd round, it really looked like Bisping had Silva at one point as he knocked him to the ground with a strong left hook. Silva was defending himself the whole time where he caught Bisping with a super-powerful knee at 30 seconds before the ring of the bell. That was a very strong finish to the second round.
ROUND THREE:
After the knockdown, it seemed like Silva was starting to become a little bit more serious instead of trying to look good for the fans. Both of them came out strike after strike and both looked very strong.
Then Bisping gets hit and you can see his mouthguard fly out onto the ground. It seemed like Silva noticed, but who knows, “The Count” took his eye off of Silva to point out to Herb Dean, who was the referee inside the cage that night that he didn’t have his mouthguard in and Silva took that time to knee him in the face right before the bell.
Bisping completely fell to the ground. The round was over, but “The Spider” was celebrating victory as if he won the fight! Herb Dean along with even the Commission ran inside the cage to spread the news to Sliva (weird). He seemed rather confused and I’m sure everyone else was. Herb Dean decided that the fight was to continue as they were about to move into the 4th round. the close call.
ROUND FOUR:
This round should be titled “Kicks to the manhood with a side of eye pokes”. Even though the fight up until this part has been entertaining it seemed like anything could've happened at this point because it was all so unexpected. Silva using most of the round to keep himself up against the cage as Bisping would work through and continue striking.
That happened for most of the fight and it made me think that Silva more so was about getting a knockout rather than racking points. But that kind of decision-making seemed to be working in Bisping’s favor right up until the flying punch at the end of the 4th round from Silva has he now had “The Count” against the cage.
ROUND FIVE:
The excitement from the crowd was rather generous when the fighters made through to the Champion round. At this point, Bisping’s face is very bloody and keeps taking the time to clear his eye of blood. At this point, I really thought Silva was winning. Strike after the strike the fighters made it to the bell both walking away from that they each won the fight.
When Herb Dean had the two fighters line up and the judge's score ended up being 48 47 with a unanimous decision going to MICHAEL “THE COUNT” BISPING. I was rather surprised because it was clear Bisping won the first two rounds but going into the 4th round of Anderson Silva after thinking he won the fight in the third round with a knockout he had to switch his braid right then and there. That has to be rather challenging. However, he becomes a more serious fighter and was looking for the finish.
The sad thing is he didn’t get after being gone from the UFC after a year.
This was by far the biggest fight for Michael Bisping going against the legend like Anderson Silva. The amount of respect these fighters gave each other after “The Count” had his hand raised was nothing but positive.
“I respect Anderson Silva and I want to be like him,”
says Bisping after his win about Silva. He now has 14 middleweight wins and that is the most any fighter has ever done. For being out of the cage for so long I really do believe the Spider is BACK. He went all 5 rounds and showed us that he is a different fighter than before. I respect both of these fighters and the amount of entertainment showed us how talented and humble they really are.
If you weren’t able to catch the fight make sure to subscribe to UFC Fight Pass.