UFC middleweight champ Michael Bisping expects spring return – and wants a money fight

We may not see UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping back in action until the spring, but when he returns, he wants one thing – and it’s something that has been a pretty common refrain in the sport lately.

Bisping wants a money fight.

The brash British veteran is well aware he’ll need to defend his title, but he’d prefer that fight come against someone who is going to help bring the dollars.

“I want the biggest fight I can get,” Bisping told our partners at Champions.co. “I don’t mind facing No. 1 contenders, but at this stage of my career, I’ve fought the best guys forever. I want the biggest fight it can possibly be. And by biggest, I mean the biggest money-generating fight I can possibly have. I feel I deserve that. I’ve earned that.”

Yoel Romero (13-1 MMA, 8-0 UFC) is widely thought to be next in line for the 185-pound belt after his TKO of former champ Chris Weidman at UFC 205 in November. But Bisping (30-7 MMA, 20-7 UFC) said if former pound-for-pound king Anderson Silva (33-8 MMA, 16-4 UFC) wants a rematch from their 2016 fight, which Bisping won by unanimous decision, he’s down. And if Georges St-Pierre (25-2 MMA, 19-2 UFC) wants to end his retirement for a fight, bring it on – as long as who he’s fighting has some bank behind him.

“If that’s Yoel Romero, great,” Bisping said. “(But) if it ain’t Yoel Romero, if it’s Anderson Silva, great – I know he’s piped up again (about wanting a rematch) lately. If it’s ‘GSP,’ I don’t care who the opponent is. I’m not bothered by any opponent. I’m the champion of the world, and I will take on all comers. But I want the biggest fight possible.”

Bisping said knee surgery will keep him sidelined until April or May, but after that, we can expect to see him back for the first time since an October decision win over Dan Henderson in the UFC 204 main event.

We’ll just be wondering who it’ll be against – and if it’s truly a big-money fight.

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