Adil Sajjad reports on a historic UFC event at the O2 Arena in east London.
Michael Bisping edged out Anderson ‘The Spider’ Silva on the scorecards in a classic five-round war which saw a controversial false finish at the end of the third. Referee Herb Dean and several stewards had to interrupt Silva’s celebrations after he landed a devastating flying knee which led him to believe the fight was stopped as it connected with the Englishman’s nose almost exactly as the bell rang to signal the end of the round.
With the usual inter-round period disrupted by the confusion, Bisping was unable to see a cut-man between rounds three and four – leaving his face a bloody mess for the rest of the fight as a result.
In what was a dramatic affair overall, Bisping began strongly in rounds one and two as he pressed Silva with his signature high-output style, landing several good combinations near the end of rounds.
However, as a stray left from Silva knocked out his mouth-guard in the third round, Bisping allowed his concentration to stray from his opponent as he called to Dean to spot the incident – an error that was immediately punished by ‘The Spider’s knees.
Although Silva began to control the pace from then on, it wasn’t enough to negate the deficit he had accumulated early on and a visibly emotional Bisping was awarded the win in his home nation. Immediately after the fight, Bisping told ringside interviewer Dan Hardy and an excited crowd about his huge respect for Silva. “I worshipped this guy”, the Briton said.
Irate
Prior to the main event, Gegard Mousasi efficiently dispatched Brazilian grappler Thales Leites via unanimous decision in a slow-burning affair, as the Dutch-Iranian picked Leites apart comfortably with a number of simple two-punch combinations.
The Brazilian was never really in contention once he realised he was unable to take the fight to the ground and Mousasi methodically wore him down over three-rounds. As the crowd reacted negatively to the bout, an irate Mousasi gestured offensively towards them and told Hardy, “I played it smart because last time I took chances and I paid for it.”
Fighting Demons
Brad ‘One-Punch’ Pickett also got his chance to celebrate in his hometown as he defeated fellow brawler Francisco Rivera via split decision. Though it wasn’t a bell-to-bell barnburner, the two bantamweights had several entertaining exchanges where both fighters swung wildly and took turns as the aggressor.
East-Londoner Pickett dropped to his knees at the decision as he revealed to Hardy that he had decided he would retire if he lost to Rivera, “I’ve been fighting a lot of demons… I’m happy I won. He’s a very tough guy.”
Welterweight Tom Breese made it a clean-sweep for English fighters on the main card as he defeated the wily Keito Nakamura via unanimous decision to improve his undefeated record to 10-0.
The Birmingham-born fighter found himself in unfamiliar territory despite entering as the favourite. Underdog ‘K-Taro’ almost produced an upset with an extremely tight ‘omoplata’ shoulder-lock in the second round, but Breese showed his class to win through.