UFC Fight Night London results and post-fight analysis

Bisping silenced his critics by carving out a unanimous decision victory over former middleweight titleholder Anderson Silva in the main event of UFC Fight Night 84 on Sunday, February 28 (Manila Time) at The O2 in London, United Kingdom.

The 40-year-old Brazilian hopes to continue competing in a new era of enhanced testing for UFC athletes, proving he can do so cleanly and that the failed test was simply a one-time mistake.

It was also Silva’s first fight in more than a year after having sat on the sidelines serving a 12-month suspension due to testing positive for steroids in January of 2015.

Indeed, the champion will be Octagon-side on Saturday night and said earlier this week that he would relish a second fight with Bisping despite beating him comfortably less than two years ago.

“This man is a cheat, this man is a fraud, and I will make you pay for your mistakes tomorrow, my friend”, he said. He finally caught Silva in the waning moments of round two, rocking the Spider with a combination and putting him on his backside.

So, if Silva has gone off the boil there’s a chance that a fired up Bisping in front of his home crowd could produce an upset.

Round three was where things took a major turn. Silva might have been more tired than he looked, however, as he threw nearly nothing in the final 90 seconds – even though it appeared Bisping was vulnerable.

The Octagon set up shop Saturday for a special event in London that aired entirely on UFC Fight Pass.

“All my fights have been different sorts of challenges”, Silva says. The fight had to be stopped for several minutes and Bisping’s face streamed with blood from a nasty cut. Standing up against the cage while letting Bisping come to him seemed to be a bit frustrating for “The Count” so he chose to take a step back to show that he is not here to play games.

Bisping has been talking about fighting Silva ever since the two were in diapers. A few more fancy kicks did some more damage, but Bisping was able to recover. Superman punch lands for Silva at the end.

Arnold Allen said: “I think the UFC are going to be coming to the United Kingdom more often”. Both of them came out strike after strike and both looked very strong.

Late in the third round with ten seconds to go Bisping had lost his mouthpiece as Silva had him pinned up against the fence. “Anderson, I know I said things, but the respect I have for you, you can not measure”. “Now, if you see my division, the top five are all more than 30”. Silva once again pinned against the cage, Bisping firing away but Silva pushes him off. Silva now pressing the action, Bisping pushes him off as they go back and forth.

“I wanted to fight him, I wanted to test him…he is a guy that I wanted to fight for so long”. At this point I really thought Silva was winning. It was a performance that summed up his career, a fighter who wanted to win so desperately that he could not possibly lose a battle of wills.

That led to him finishing out the five rounds and snatching the victory from the jaws of defeat when the judges saw the fight in his favor.