If things had gone according to the original plan, the UFC’s November 26 visit to Shanghai, China would be headlined by a middleweight scrap between Kelvin Gastelum and former champion Anderson Silva. Unfortunately, Silva was pulled from this bout after a disappointing brush with the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA). The silver lining is that the UFC was able to find a compelling replacement for Silva in Michael Bisping, who wore the divisional crown until he was dethroned by Georges St-Pierre earlier this month.
Now less than two weeks out from this event, the UFC has released an updated poster for it, highlighting Michael Bisping and Kelvin Gastelum’s last-minute main event confrontation.
See the official poster below!
Prior to his title loss to St-Pierre, which came by way of third-round submission, Michael Bisping was riding high on five-straight wins, including a decision defeat of his arch rival Dan Henderson, an unforgettable knockout win over Luke Rockhold, a thrilling decision defeat of Anderson Silva, and decision wins over Thales Leites and CB Dollaway.
Kelvin Gastelum, meanwhile, recently came up short to former champion Chris Weidman. Prior to that loss, he destroyed Vitor Belfort in the first round (though this win was overturned when he tested positive for marijuana), and mauled the retiring Tim Kennedy to a stoppage.
Here’s a full rundown of the UFC’s upcoming return to Shanghai.
- Michael Bisping vs. Kelvin Gastelum
- Li Jingliang vs. Zak Ottow
- Alex Caceres vs. Wang Guan
- Alex Garcia vs. Muslim Salikhov
- Zabit Magomedsharipov vs. Sheymon Moraes
- Bobby Nash vs. Kenan Song
- Kailin Curran vs. Yan Xiaonan
- Bharat Khandare vs. Pingyuan Liu
- Shamil Abdurakhimov vs. Chase Sherman
- Gina Mazany vs. Yanan Wu
- Wuliji Buren vs. Rolando Dy
- Cyril Asker vs. James Mulheron
Will you be tuning in to watch Michael Bisping and Kelvin Gastelum go to war?
This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 15/11/2017.