Michael Bisping is not a fan of UFC champions wanting to chase a second belt right away.
Ilia Topuria (17-0 MMA, 9-0 UFC) relinquished his featherweight belt after just one title defense to chase the lightweight title. After capturing the 155-pound belt, “El Matador” is already talking about chasing Islam Makhachev at welterweight.
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Middleweight champion Khamzat Chimaev (15-0 MMA, 9-0 UFC) revealed plans of one title defense before a move up to light heavyweight to go after Alex Pereira, but Pereira wants Jon Jones at heavyweight. Bisping is noticing a trend where every fighter is accusing the other of ducking them.
“We’ve got Ilia apparently running from Arman Tsarukyan, we’ve got Islam Makhachev running from Ilia Topuria, we’ve got Khamzat Chimaev running from Nassourdine Imavov, we’ve got (Alex) Pereira running from Khamzat Chimaev, and we’ve got Jon Jones, the greatest of all time, running from big Tom Aspinall,” Bisping said on his YouTube channel. “That is the situation if you listen to all the noise.”
Former UFC middleweight champion Bisping misses the days when champions used to defend their titles against the next rightful contender.
“I’ve said it many times in the past: You really need to defend the belt in your weight class three times before you even think about moving on, or you’ve got to vacate the belt,” Bisping said. “Vacate the belt, keep the division moving on, and then you go up to the next division, maybe earn a fight, maybe get an immediate rematch if your star is big enough, if you’ve defended the belt three times or whatever the case may be. But this whole thing of wanting to just jump ship straight away – I mean, Pereira came back, and he beat Magomed Ankalaev. If anyone’s got the right to be talking about that, it is Alex Pereira.”
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: UFC analyst urges champions to stop avoiding top contenders
