Earlier today I wrote a story in which I called for a middleweight bout between Michael Bisping and Costa Philippou. The UFC doesn’t normally like to match up fighters who are on winning streaks with guys coming off of a loss, but this bout makes too much sense to me. Bisping still carries a lot of name recognition and a win over Philippou would put him right back at the top of the middleweight ladder while a win over Bisping would provide Costa a win over an established contender.

Tonight on BJPenn.Com Radio Philippou and Alchemist President Lex McMahon called in to the show and discussed the possibility of Bisping and Philippou meeting in London this July.

“To be honest I was thinking the same thing, I know the UFC doesn’t usually like matching up someone coming off a loss with somebody coming off of a win,” Philippou told BJPenn.Com Radio. “In this case it’s a big difference because Bisping is Bisping and he’s been around forever. The guy has fought a who’s who of MMA, I think it works out well for both of us. He gets to fight in his hometown against somebody who is in the top five or top 10 who has five wins in a row. If he beats me he’ll be right in the mix again and if I beat him I’m right up there too. I think it’s something for him to think about. The guy is a striker who is willing to strike and I’m willing to strike, it’ll make for an exciting fight. If I was him I would take the fight.”

McMahon chimed in next with his opinion and he has been thinking about this for a few days now. Apparently this is something he feels strongly about and has already put the wheels in motion.

“Costa and I spoke about this a couple of days ago and I think Costa is on point, it doesn’t matter that Bisping is coming off of a loss,” explained McMahon. “At the end of the day he makes $150,000 a fight for a reason, he knows how to market himself, the UFC and he knows how to sell tickets. He is a dangerous opponent and a top guy. For Costa to come in and main event against Bisping would be great for him, it’s definitely a dangerous fight, but one that I think Costa would do extremely well in. I think this is one of those opportunities where the fight just makes sense and the wins and losses aren’t necessarily important. We’re not saying this is a title contender fight or anything because it’s not. It’s a great fight for the fans and a great opportunity for Costa to further establish his brand and his reputation within the sport. Hopefully Joe (Silva) is an avid BJPenn.Com Radio listener and he knows what were talking about. I actually hit him up about it a few days ago, but we’ll see what happens.”

Philippou added a great point about how easy it would be for the UFC to market the fight.

“Being that it would be in his hometown, they wouldn’t have to try and sell the fight,” Philippou said. “The arena would be sold out in no time, all the tickets would be sold immediately. Bisping is a national hero over there and I wouldn’t mind beating him in his hometown.”

Bisping is without a doubt one of the best fighters in the UFC when it comes to selling his fights. He has long been known for his trash talking and his ability to get underneath his opponents skin. Philippou knows what he is getting into and isn’t about to get into a war of words with the outspoken Brit.

“I’m not the trash talking kind of guy,” admitted the 33-year-old New York state resident. “If he wants to trash talk and say things about me, I’m not that sensitive, I don’t mind. I’ll let him do his job and sell the fight. At the end of the day it will be me and him in the cage and if he says something that really gets to me then I’ll take it out on him inside the Octagon. I have too much respect for the guy, he is a great fighter. The more he keeps trash talking me the more I will keep giving him compliments! We’ll try a different approach this time, everyone keeps trash talking one another, I am going to give compliments to everybody.”

 
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