{"id":242301,"date":"2017-06-15T11:14:22","date_gmt":"2017-06-15T18:14:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?p=242301"},"modified":"2017-06-15T11:14:22","modified_gmt":"2017-06-15T18:14:22","slug":"michael-bisping-on-romero-whittaker-interim-belts-are-jokes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/michael-bisping-on-romero-whittaker-interim-belts-are-jokes\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Bisping on Romero-Whittaker: ‘interim belts are jokes’"},"content":{"rendered":"

This summer at UFC 213 on July 8th, top ranked middleweight contenders Yoel Romero and Robert Whittaker<\/a> will square off for the interim middleweight title in a highly anticipated showdown to crown the middleweight #1 contender. While the winner will be crowned the interim middleweight champion, more importantly, they will secure a title fight with middleweight champion Michael Bisping.<\/p>\n

The way the champ sees it however, an interim belt is next to meaningless. He spoke to OddsBible<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\"Michael<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn’t mean anything; interim belts aren’t worth the leather they’re printed on. An interim belt is a joke, I defended the belt in October and I’ve had a bit of a knee issue, but it’s the UFC’s decision, and if they want to do that, then good for them! All it does is solidify who the number one contender is,\u201d<\/p>\n

“They’ve got to sell pay-per-views. Dana asked me to fight in July, which I said I couldn’t as I’d had two knee surgeries at the start of the year and the recovery time hasn’t gone to plan,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s taking longer than expected so he asked did I mind an interim title fight so I said do what you’ve got to do. It doesn’t bother me.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Bisping has been on a tear of the UFC’s middleweight division over the course of the last 2 years, going 5-0 as he defeated Anderson Silva in London, before then claiming the middleweight title four months later on short notice when he knocked out Luke Rockhold<\/a>. Following his win over Rockhold, Bisping defended his belt<\/a> for the first time against Dan Henderson in a highly anticipated rematch that saw both men awarded with ‘Fight of the Night’ honors. <\/p>\n

\"Dan<\/p>\n

Only time will tell who Bisping will defend his belt against when he is able to return to the Octagon.<\/p>\n

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com<\/a> on 6\/15\/2017.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This summer at UFC 213 on July 8th, top ranked middleweight contenders Yoel Romero and Robert Whittaker will square off for the interim middleweight title in a highly anticipated showdown to crown the middleweight #1 contender. While the winner will be crowned the interim middleweight champion, more importantly, they will secure a title fight with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":206637,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[10128,10086],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nMichael Bisping on Romero-Whittaker: 'interim belts are jokes' | BJPenn.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping explains why interim belts are meaningless in his eyes given his title defense in October.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/michael-bisping-on-romero-whittaker-interim-belts-are-jokes\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" 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