Strictly speaking, in MMA terms at least, there's never a bad time to kick a guy's head into the fifth row and then choke him out before he can get comfortable on the canvas.
There is, however, the best time to do it.
For Luke Rockhold, doing it to Michael Bisping in Australia at UFC Fight Night 55 falls somewhere in between the two.
Rockhold is a pretty hot commodity at middleweight these days, a guy who most are high on after his demolition of Tim Boetsch and considering his pedigree as former Strikeforce champion.
Yes, he lost to Vitor Belfort in the notorious TRT-tor era, but that basically doesn't even count. He might as well have lost to Bane.
Therefore, his win Down Under kind of pumps his tires a little more. He'll probably get a bump in the rankings and there'll be some momentum from fans hoping to see a title shot, so it wasn't a bad night's work overall.
He looked phenomenal in his dispatch of the veteran Brit, the type of win that builds on the cred of his Submission of the Century contender over Boetsch.
Except it was unfortunately timed.
Rockhold: “All respect to Jacare, I’ll beat you again. I’m the No. 1 contender."
— Marc Raimondi (@marc_raimondi) November 8, 2014
Belfort, still on the strength of a win streak that included both Rockhold and Bisping in 2013, is next in line for the title. Ahead of Rockhold in both rank and status is Ronaldo Souza, who actually suffered a loss to Rockhold in 2011 but has been romping the middleweight universe ever since.
Lyoto Machida, who lost one of the fights of 2014 in a title shot this past summer, is still in the mix, while, dare it be said, the incomparable Anderson Silva is never more than a win or two away from the front of the line based on a career unlike any other the UFC has seen.
It's the mishmash of guys at the top that diminishes Rockhold's win to a regrettable degree and almost assures he'll be fighting again before getting a title shot he probably deserves today. Men have been given more for doing less in this sport, that's for sure.
With Belfort getting his shot almost three months from now and so much else going on around him, Rockhold will likely end up seeing Souza again—something he didn't seem opposed to during his inspired, if somewhat awkward post-fight interview.
Worse things could happen for the fans who'll get to watch two of the best 185ers alive settle a score, but both guys have done enough to earn a title shot.
