Despite the best efforts of Michael Bisping to convince everyone that his trip to Chicago was just a happy coincidence, it appears that the heavily rumored matchup between he and fellow middleweight contender Demian Maia is in fact going down January 28th in Chicago as part of the UFC’s second outing on the Fox network.
The above image was sent out by the UFC via email on Wednesday and would suggest the fighters, including Bisping and Maia, will be introduced as part of today’s press conference for the event in Chicago.
Both men are coming off of wins, with Maia rebounding from a very close decision loss to fellow contender Mark Munoz by defeating Jorge Santiago in October. Bisping is currently riding a four fight win streak, with his most recent win coming last weekend over fellow TUF 14 coach Jason “Mayhem” Miller in Las Vegas.
Bisping is facing a quick turnaround time, with only two months between fights, but Miller did little to damage Bisping in their bout, and “The Count” has always been known to keep in tremendous shape between scraps.
This rounds out the main card on Fox very nicely, as every fight has major title implications for their respective divisions.One could almost look at the Bisping/Maia and Sonnen/Munoz fights as a 4-man tournament to determine the next contender to the injured Anderson Silva’s 185 lb. title, although it is doubtful the UFC will promote it as such. Either way, it’s safe to say that one of those four men will be the next challenger for Silva once his shoulder heals up.
Also, barring further injury or controversy, the winner of the Evans/Davis main event will almost certainly be getting the next shot at the light-heavyweight title after Jon Jones and Lyoto Machida square off for that belt in this weekend’s UFC 140 main event.
Below is the full (and now stacked) UFC on Fox 2 card as it stands today:
Main Card
- Rashad Evans vs Phil Davis
- Chael Sonnen vs Mark Munoz
- Michael Bisping vs Demian Maia
Preliminary Card
- Eddie Wineland vs Demetrious Johnson
- Cody McKenzie vs Michael Johnson
- Mike Russow vs Jon Olav Einemo
- Cub Swanson vs George Roop