Michael Bisping vs Anderson Silva Likely If Bisping Wins His Next Fight

Michael Bisping moved one step closer to a shot at Anderson Silva's middleweight title when he defeated Chris Leben at UFC 89 on Saturday afternoon. "The Count", in front of a hometown crowd, defeated a very-prepared Chris Leben via unanimous decision.

This is Bisping's third straight win since moving to the Middleweight division. Bisping defeated Charles McCarthy at UFC 83 - "Serra vs St. Pierre II" via TKO (strikes), Jason Day via TKO (Punches) at UFC 85 - "Bedlam" and Chris Leben via unanimous decision at UFC 89 - "Bisping vs Leben". Bisping decided to make the move to the Middleweight division after dropping a controversial decision to Rashad Evans at UFC 78 - Validation.

Bisping is one fight away from a shot at Silva's title. However, the final step will be the toughest one, as Bisping is likely going to square off against the winner of Henderson/Franklin, which will take place at UFC 93. Dana White has already stated that Bisping would be one of the coaches on the ninth season of "The Ultimate Fighter", and that he would likely be coaching (and ultimately fighting) against either Dan Henderson or Rich Franklin. Both Franklin and Henderson are extremely talented fighters who will give Bisping all that he can handle. Many people are of the opinion that Bisping is one of the most over-rated fighters in the UFC - this will be his chance to prove his critics wrong.

Bisping has an impressive lifetime professional MMA record of 17-1-0. He is still extremely young (29 years old) and has a very bright future in front of him. He is very popular overseas, and the management of the UFC will be very anxious to put him into a "big" money fight against Anderson Silva. There are really no interesting challengers for Silva in the middleweight division at the moment, but a Bisping / Silva fight would certainly draw quite a few buys for the company.

As mentioned, Bisping's lone loss during his career as a professional fighter came against Rashad Evans at UFC 78 - "Validation". Aside from that lone blemish, Bisping has racked up a number of big wins against the likes of Chris Leben, Matt Hamill and Jason Day.

Bisping is on the cusp of becoming a bonafide UFC superstar, however it will likely take another decisive victory over either Dan Henderson or Rich Franklin to fully bring North American UFC fans over to his side.

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