Michael Bisping's (almost) impossible UFC dream

After a decade in the UFC, British brawler Michael Bisping is finally set to fight for championship gold. Problem is, he has almost zero chance of winning.

Less than two weeks ago, Bisping was on a movie set with Vin Diesel. Now he is in the final stages of preparation for a short-notice fight against Luke Rockhold, the world’s best middleweight who mauled the British poster boy just 18 months ago.

Their first encounter took place at Sydney’s Allphones Arena, mere metres away from my comfy media chair. That afternoon, Bisping was the undeniable fan favourite.

Like a long-tenured pro wrestling villain who had gradually earned the fans’ adoration, Bisping had transformed in front of their eyes from an arrogant Englishman into one of the most underappreciated fighters in UFC history.

The fan support did little to help Bisping once the bell sounded, though. Rockhold, the eventual UFC champion who looks more like an underwear model than a prize fighter, was bigger, stronger and faster, belting the cardio kickboxer on the feet, before eventually submitting him in the second round.

Bisping, to his credit, has rebounded excellently since that setback, racking up three more wins, including a victory over the once-invincible Anderson Silva.

It’s the big-name scalp that had eluded the Englishman for his entire career, but even the most unapologetic Bisping supporter would have to admit the present incarnation of the middleweight GOAT is well past his expiration date.

Given that, it should come as no surprise that Bisping wasn’t the top choice to step in for an injured Chris Weidman to fight for the 185-pound title.

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu champ Ronaldo ‘Jacare’ Souza was the leading candidate but an injury forced UFC matchmaker Joe Silva to cross his name off the list.

Fellow contenders Yoel Romero and Lyoto Machida were ruled out after run-ins with the drug testing police at USADA, and several other contenders were on the injured list nursing boo-boos.

Really, Bisping wasn’t the only choice to bolster the UFC 199 cast in Los Angeles, but he was the best one.

Heading into his second blockbuster fight against Rockhold, the stakes are significantly higher for the number-four ranked middleweight. This time, it’s a pay-per-view main event for the most prestigious 185-pound championship in MMA history.

One thing hasn’t changed in the 18 months since Rockhold versus Bisping I, the California-based Brit again has an army of supporters.

Monitoring social media this week, fans and even media members are openly cheering for Bisping, the seven-to-one dark horse.

It’s hard not to get behind the 37-year-old’s underdog story. Bisping has shared the cage with the best fighters of a generation, winning some and losing some, but never breaking through the ceiling to solidify a title fight.

Moreover, the perennial contender had a nasty history of losing crucial fights to performance-enhancing-drug users – both those that had therapeutic-use-exemptions for the now-banned testosterone-replacement-therapy and those who flew too close to the sun and got burned by the drug testers.

Sunday’s big championship fight – which takes place almost 10 years to the date since his UFC debut – will certainly be a legacy-defining fight for Bisping.

Either the UK’s best MMA export is remembered as a tough-as-nails journeyman who crashed and burned with almost every venture into the upper echelon of the division or as just the eighth middleweight king in the past decade-and-a-half.

It would be a heart-warming moment if it were the latter, but there’s a reason why few outside of Bisping’s immediate friends and family are predicting a title change in the UFC 199 main event.