Michael Bisping upset at Hector Lombard's potential title shot with UFC on Fox 4 win

By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

The impending arrival of middleweight Hector Lombard to the UFC is already causing a bit of a stir in the division. The UFC holds him in high regard despite the fact that he's not yet stepped foot in the Octagon, and they're showing as much by booking him in a five-round main event against Brian Stann at UFC on Fox 4 this August.

That's a statement in and of itself, but UFC President Dana White upped the ante last week by saying that a win in that fight very well could earn Lombard a title shot in the middleweight division. That statement didn't sit well with at least one fighter at 185 lbs. in Michael Bisping.

"It does piss me off a little bit, you know?" Bisping said in an interview with MMADieHards (transcribed by MMAMania.com). "I've been slugging away in the UFC for six years now, fighting the best guys in the world and just because Hector Lombard's been knocking out little part-time fighters who probably hold down jobs full-time.

"He's been knocking out people that I haven't got a clue who they are, I haven't even heard of them, you know, while I've been knocking out the best fighters in the world and fighting the best consistently for six years and he's going to come in from knocking out John the baker from around the corner and you know, he gets a title shot?"

Bisping hopes to stake his own claim to a shot this July at UFC 149, as he'll take on Tim Boetsch in Calgary.

Penick's Analysis: Can't fault Bisping for that line of thinking. The biggest criticism and issue fans and writers have had in considering Lombard one of the best fighters in the division is his level of competition. Going 25 fights without a loss is definitely impressive, but without doing that against the level of competition that is found in the UFC makes it hard to gauge how much stock to put in that streak. For a fighter like Bisping who has been grinding his way through the UFC's middleweight division, having a guy come in and leap frog him would be frustrating. Bisping himself doesn't have that marquee win under his belt to truly stake a claim to a title shot, but his level of competition over the last several years is certainly higher than Lombard's. That doesn't mean the UFC will put a ton of stock in that at this point, but he's got a right to be frustrated by that turn of events.

[Michael Bisping art by Grant Gould (c) MMATorch.com]

Source: http://www.mmatorch.com/artman2/publish/UFC_2/article_13219.shtml

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