Tonight in Manchester, England. UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping will look to defend his middleweight championship for the first time, and avenge his UFC 100 loss to Dan Henderson.
The highlight reel knockout took place seven years ago, and has since been immortalized as not only one of the greatest knockouts of all time, but also as Henderson’s logo.
Tonight, seven years after the MMA legend landed the infamous H-Bomb on ‘The Count’, Bisping will have the opportunity for revenge in Manchester, England in front of a very hyped English crowd.
Ahead of the fight, Bisping spoke to MMAFighting to reflect on the loss:
“That knockout happened seven years ago, and if you think I’ve never seen it you would be mistaken,” Bisping said. “That knockout has been repeated and shown by the UFC, on FOX Sports, on Twitter, the amount of people who tweet me that GIF is unbelievable, me seeing that is nothing new, I’ve seen it ad nauseam, of course, you don’t want to see it, you don’t want to see the guy knocking you out. But listen, I felt it, I’ve seen it, I’ve saw it a million times, it’s great. It fuels me, it fuels me to show that world that, well listen, that’s not going to happen again.”
“The fight makes sense,” Bisping said. “Dan Henderson has proven he’s still effective, he’s still got a big right hand, he still knocks people out, the last thing that goes is power, and on top of the power he still has good timing on it, he’s incredibly fast, you’ve seen it in the Hector Lombard fight, he drilled Hector with it several times prior to getting the knockout. It won’t be a walk in the park, of course. I’m confident, but I’m the younger guy, the bigger guy, the fast guy, but also on top of everything, I think I’m mentally stronger compared to Dan.”
While Bisping is certainly as confident as can be ahead of the fight, he has a message for fans and critics alike:
“Take that one time Michel Bisping got knocked out, and loop it,” Bisping said. “Play it on a loop, because guess what? The record will be set straight on October 8. The H-bomb will not land, lightning does not strike twice.”