Michael Bisping makes Jorge Rivera pay for trash talk at UFC 127

At last night UFC 127 Penn vs Fitch from Sydney, Australia the co-main event bout between middleweights Michael Bisping (21-3) and Jorge Rivera (19-8) went into the second round with Bisping dominating and controlling the fight, eventually winning via TKO at 1:54 of the second.

Prior to the fight there was a massive amount of drama and hype caused by Rivera and team managing to get under Bisping’s skin by creating youtube videos. They basically belittling the fighter on his punching power, questioning his previous decision wins, making fun of his accent and claiming that Bisping was disappointed when presented with Rivera as an opponent.

Michael Bisping, who himself has been known to talk trash before fights, clearly thought that Rivera and team were crossing a line and acting unprofessional.  He has admitted that he was not too happy about the match up and was rather hoping that he would get a fight with an opponent in the top five, which would allow him to start on a path for a title fight.  This expectation, however, does not seem that unrealistic when taking into account that on paper Bisping looks much better than Rivera.  Rivera was coming off of three wins in a row however his opponents were not of the same caliber Bisping has faced in his last three fights, which were a loss to Wanderlei Silva and wins against Dan Miller and Yoshihiro Akiyama.

The two fighters were not just creating pre-fight hype, it was obvious they did not like each other and each wanted a KO victory. Bisping got his chance to release all his frustrations last night and he did so without holding anything back.  In the process reactions from fans on twitter last night showed the people thought he was not so professional himself at certain times during and after the fight. Following is a recap of the fight.

Gloves were not touched at the beginning of the fight.

In round one, Rivera opened with a missed shot and a kick that was blocked.  After the two stand for a bit more, Bisping easily takes Rivera down.  Rivera got back up for some more stand up action and was able to land a good punch but Bisping once again got the take down. After some ground and pound from Bisping, Rivera manages to get escape and starts to get back up.  Then there comes the illegal knee from Bisping squarely on Rivera’s forehead.

It looked pretty serious and the speculation is that the fight could be stopped.  The doctor examined Rivera, who looked upset and confused while Bisping didn’t look a bit remorseful for the illegal knee.  Rivera is asked to confirm out loud that he can continue the fight and he confirms as the fight goes on with one point deduction for Bisping.  The still dazed Rivera survives the round but is easily controlled by Bisping.

Round two started out with Rivera attacking Bisping that caused some swelling over his eye.  The success was short-lived though as Rivera ended up against the wall, absorbing knees against the body.  Bisping then landed both a left and a right punch and Rivera ended up covering up and absorbing even more punches.  The referee steps in to stops the fight at 1:54 of the second round for the TKO victory by Bisping.

While Rivera was still down Bisping walked over pointing and spat at Rivera’s team and yelled at Rivera once the fighter got back to his feet.  After the fight Michael Bisping was interviewed by Joe Rogan and apologized for his behavior and pointed out that all the trash talking before the fight did get to him and made it personal, but added that he does have respect for Jorge Rivera.

Overall, the fight was entertaining for the fans and held up to the hype it created before the fight and what factor the illegal knee actually played into the final outcome is anyone guess.

Tags: Jorge Rivera, Michael Bisping, MMA, Results, UFC, UFC 127

Category: MMA, Results, UFC