With Belcher and Boetsch losing, Bisping has prime position for title shot

Michael Bisping has been making it loud and clear that he believes the next crack at Anderson Silva should belong to him. Obviously, a few breaks had to go his way to make that the case. While seated cageside at UFC 155 in Las Vegas on Saturday night, Bisping watched as a couple of those breaks went his way. 

First, he watch Yushin Okami stall out the offensive attack of Alan Belcher to earn a unanimous decision to go 2-0 against “The Talent.” Then, the rolling Tim Boetsch had his train derailed by Costa Philippou after Philippou replaced injured Chris Weidman. Both fights were upset but Bisping certainly wasn’t upset by what transpired. At the post fight press conference, Dana White confirmed that Bisping is now in the drivers seat for a middleweight title shot. All he has to do now is get past Vitor Belfort at UFC on FX 7 next month.

“It’s funny, because yesterday at the weigh-ins, Belcher came up to me and said, ‘I’m going to win this fight tomorrow night, and when Vitor Belfort gets hurt, because you know he will, I’m going to step in and I want that fight with Bisping,'” White said. “But yeah. If Bisping wins that fight, he’ll get the next shot.”

Surely, that was music to Bisping’s ears. He’s struggled mightily to get White to agree that he’s ready for a title shot. Despite winning five of his last six fights, Bisping has had to stand in line behind Chris Weidman, Belcher and Boetsch. Now with both Belcher and Boetsch losing, couple with Weidman having the tough break of being sidelined, all he needs is to beat Vitor Belfort.

Certainly no easy task.