Bisping hopes to work his way to bout with Silva

Anderson Silva has ruled the middleweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship since before Michael Bisping was part of the weight class.

The 33-year-old Bisping has been in the title mix since dropping to 185 pounds in early 2008 and has seen numerous contenders get the opportunity to challenge Silva, only to come away empty-handed. Yet, Bisping has never been able to test his skills against one of the greatest champions of all time.

Before his career is over, Bisping thinks he must change that.

"It's not like I'm obsessed with him, but Anderson is going to go down as one of the greatest fighters ever," Bisping said. "In 20 to 30 years, when I'm an old man with my grandkids or sitting at a bar talking about Anderson Silva, for me to say I went 10 years in the organization side by side with him and never fought him would be disappointing to say the least. A robbery.

"Not to fight him would be a failed career."

To get that, Bisping must knock off the other contenders in the crowded division, starting with Brian Stann at UFC 152 on Saturday in Toronto.

Bisping acknowledges he has had opportunities in the past and has come up short, most notably with a brutal knockout loss to Dan Henderson in a No. 1 contender bout in 2009. He also dropped a decision to Wanderlei Silva in early 2010, then another top contender bout to Chael Sonnen in January.

While he still thinks he should have been awarded the decision over Sonnen, Bisping says the knockout loss to Henderson was the best thing that ever happened to him because it showed him everything he was doing wrong. Still, he could go without hearing about it or being shown video of the deciding blow just about every day.

Bisping probably will be haunted by his lack of a title shot in much the same way should his career end without reaching the goal.

But even a win over Stann may not earn him that opportunity. Silva has a nontitle fight at light heavyweight against Stephan Bonnar next month and a superfight against welterweight champ Georges St. Pierre potentially on tap for early 2013, so he may not be defending the title any time soon. Even if he does, Chris Weidman has been declared the official No. 1 contender.

Bisping can accept having to deal with a difficult path to the belt, but being placed behind Weidman in the pecking order by UFC president Dana White has officially set off the witty Brit.

While Bisping has taken only sporadic, harmless shots at Stann leading up to Saturday's fight, he has been far more liberal in firing barbs Weidman's way.

"He's got a good streak going, and he's got a lot of hype going at the moment. He knocked out a fat Mark Munoz, who was out of shape coming off an injury. Not that impressive, if you ask me," Bisping said. "The fight before that was Demian Maia; again not impressive. Demian Maia looked terrible that night, but so did Chris Weidman. You can say, 'Oh, he cut this amount of weight.' Well, that's his (expletive) problem. That's not an excuse, is it? You looked (expletive), plain and simple.

"Then he knocks out Mark Munoz, and all of a sudden you're the great white hope, hype, hope, the great white whatever? Just because he elbowed an out-of-shape fat man?"

Should Bisping get by Stann, and Weidman defeats Tim Boetsch in December, Bisping may get a chance to prove his assessment correct.

First, he must make sure he defeats a capable middleweight in Stann on Saturday.

The bout is part of a major pay per view that includes a light heavyweight title bout between Vitor Belfort and champion Jon Jones and a fight between Demetrious Johnson and Joseph Benavidez to determine the organization's first flyweight champion.

Contact reporter Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com or 702-224-5509. Follow him on Twitter: @adamhilllvrj.