When Michael Bisping says he's 'not going anywhere,' that could mean a few things

The more I think about it, the more I wonder if Michael Bisping knew exactly what he was saying when he told us, following his submission loss to Luke Rockhold at UFC Fight Night 55 this past Friday, that he’s “not going anywhere.”

Seems to me you can read that a few ways, and they aren’t all good. Not for Bisping, who’s 35, the owner of a 1-2 record in 2014, and caught in a stiff current that’s taking him further and further from that elusive title shot.

In that context, the phrase “I’m not going anywhere” could very easily be interpreted as a depressingly dead-ended statement of fact. Imagine it being said by a zombie-eyed middle manager or a junior high school janitor, probably while looking in the mirror after a few too many after-work bourbons at the local Applebees. Imagine it followed by a long sigh, the sound of utter resignation. Imagine it being said by a person who’s stuck, and who knows it.

Obviously, that’s not how Bisping (25-7 MMA, 15-7 UFC) meant it. A lack of self-confidence has never been his problem, for better or worse. This is a man who believes in himself, maybe too much. Even before this fight with Rockhold (13-2 MMA, 3-1 UFC), he insisted he wasn’t concerned that a loss would knock him out of the UFC middleweight title picture for good, because he still has “many years left in this sport.”

That’s a man whose thinking is so positive as to be borderline delusional. In other words, that’s a man who has the mental state you need to be a professional fighter.

What he doesn’t have are the required physical tools to be UFC champ. That seems clear by now. Against Rockhold, he was too slow, too small, too one-dimensional. He spent most of the first round and what there was of the second getting battered by kicks that might as well have come from an offshore vessel, for all he could do about them. On those rare occasions when he did manage to get close enough to touch their source, he had to settle for a glancing blow as his target slipped past him and back out into safe firing range. Short of miraculous intervention from aliens or angels or a sympathetic street gang armed with baseball bats, Bisping wasn’t winning this fight (watch the Rockhold vs. Bisping video highlights).

That’s not proof that he sucks or that he should quit. It’s just proof that he is who we always suspected he was: a guy who only loses to the really good fighters and only gets finished by the pretty great ones. The latter is who Rockhold is, especially now that his brand of calm confidence has caught up with his physical tools. He’s likely headed toward a UFC title shot, which sounds about right, given Bisping’s history as the middleweight division’s most reliable catapult.

So where does that leave Bisping, the man who’s better than his enemies give him credit for, but not the champion-in-waiting he seems to think he is?

I guess that’s where we come back around to his open-ended vow: “I’m not going anywhere.”

For his intentions, you could just as easily substitute “away” for “anywhere.” Bisping wants us to know that he’s still going to be here, still starting up feuds, pissing off opponents, being the sneering antagonist you hate to love to hate. He’s so good at it, after all, that it’d be a shame not to reach his full potential in that arena. But the thing about not going away is that it’s often indistinguishable from just sticking around, doing the same things you’ve always done, with the same results and rewards.

That’s not necessarily bad news for Bisping, whose position as a reliable draw in just about any port of call has made him a lot of money over the years. Obviously, he wants to be the very best, rather than simply very good. That’s not going to happen, though, and surely that’s a disappointment for him. But a pro fighter could do a lot worse than to end up as a Michael Bisping figure, making Michael Bisping money to do Michael Bisping chores.

Not going anywhere? That’s not so bad, really. Then again, the person who feels the need to tell us that he isn’t going away is very often a person who’s afraid that he might.

For complete coverage of UFC Fight Night 55, check out the UFC Events section of the site.

(Pictured: Michael Bisping)