His final chance? UFC title hopeful Michael Bisping doesn't think so

(This story appears in today’s edition of USA TODAY.)

Twenty-two months ago, UFC middleweight Michael Bisping was backstage at Sao Paulo’s Ibirapuera Gymnasium with UFC Chairman and CEO Lorenzo Fertitta and gearing up for a fight with Vitor Belfort. For the first time in Bisping’s lengthy UFC career, he knew exactly what was on the line.

“Lorenzo came into my dressing room and said, ‘You win this, and we want you to call out Anderson Silva on the mic,'” Bisping (25-6 MMA, 15-6 UFC) told USA TODAY Sports and MMAjunkie.

Talk about pressure.

At that point, Bisping had been in pursuit of a UFC title for seven years and 17 fights, a very long run with no promise of gold. He’d lost an opportunity one year earlier with a narrow defeat to Chael Sonnen. All he had to do was beat Belfort, and he would square off with then-champ Silva, arguably the great fighter in MMA history and the longest-reigning champ in UFC history.

However, Belfort knocked out Bisping in the second round, and many fight fans forever wrote him off as the guy who was good, but never good enough to win a belt.

Fertitta is not coming to Bisping’s next fight, tonight’s UFC Fight Night headliner opposite Luke Rockhold (12-2 MMA, 2-1 UFC) at Sydney’s Allphones Arena (UFC Fight Pass, 7:30 p.m. ET). The sharp-tongued Brit has conceded he isn’t getting a title shot if he wins. Despite the unofficial asterisks placed beside his losses to Sonnen and Belfort for their use of the now-banned testosterone-replacement therapy, the stakes are now to stay “in the mix” of contenders.

It’s easy, though, to see why this could be Bisping’s last chance to convince UFC bosses he’s worthy – unless, of course, you’re asking him.

“I wouldn’t say that at all,” he said. “If you want to be objective about it, does that mean that every person that Luke Rockhold has a victory over, their career is dead in the water?”

No one disputes Bisping is popular (or at least a popular whipping boy), well-paid and able. But the polarizing fighter, is also 35, continually faces steep competition, and already has stumbled on multiple occasions. If he can’t beat 30-year-old Rockhold, a former Strikeforce champ with his own previous stumble against Belfort, does he have the years to re-climb the ladder, and will the UFC make that investment?

UFC commentator and retired fighter Kenny Florian got even closer to the sport’s pinnacle, thrice falling short for the title in two separate divisions. He said that while the weight of potential setbacks felt heavier, they did not keep him from moving forward.

Even before his final fight, a title shot against featherweight champ Jose Aldo, Florian refused to look at failure as a finality.

“I said, ‘If I don’t get it done, I can always go back to 155 (pounds),'” he said. “I had that as a Plan B.”

A back injury ultimately decided Florian’s end date, but he said for guys like Bisping, admitting there’s a glass ceiling is a dangerous thing when you’re getting into the cage with the world’s best fighters. It’s better instead to lie to yourself that things will be different.

“That’s one thing I see when I look back,” Florian said. “You do (lie to yourself). As a fighter, you have to have that pride and belief, whether it’s real or not. It comes down to faith. As soon as a fighter loses that, they’re just going out there for a paycheck.”

And from the sound of it, Bisping is nowhere near losing his.

“This fight with Rockhold is important,” he said. “If I fail, (a title is) certainly going to take the backseat. But I’m still going to try to achieve that. I still think I have many years left in this sport. The good thing is, a good solid win, and you’re back in the rankings again.

“If you’ve got the ability, it’s always there for you, if you want it.”

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