Michael Bisping reveals his pound-for-pound No.1 which doesn’t include Islam Makhachev or Alexander Volkanovski
Michael Bisping recently weighed in on the controversy surrounding the UFC’s pound-for-pound rankings following Islam Makhachev vs. Alexander Volkanovski.
The former middleweight champion went further, detailing one fighter standing tall at the top of his pound-for-pound rankings, which isn’t either fighter who took part in the UFC 284 main event in Perth, Australia.
Earlier in the month, Makhachev was made to work for the first defense of his lightweight title against current featherweight champion Volkanvoski. The Aussie attempted to attain champ-champ status by moving up to lightweight but fell short by the smallest of margins.
The motivation for Makhachev in competing against the featherweight champion was simple. The Dagestani wanted to steal Volkanovski’s place at the top of the UFC’s pound-for-pound rankings.
Makhachev thought he had done enough to successfully complete his mission after 25-minutes of back-and-forth action. However, when the UFC released the updated rankings after the event, Volkanovski held onto the No.1 spot.
Despite the selling point to the UFC 284 super-fight in Perth being P4P No.1 vs. P4P No.2, fighter-turned-analysts Bisping believes the pair are actually fighting for second place in the rankings.
Michael Bisping weighs in on UFC pound-for-pound rankings
In a recent video on Bisping’s Youtube channel, he discussed his thoughts on the situation’s controversy. He can understand why the decision to keep Volkanovski at No.1 was carried out given his performance, but in his eyes, neither Volkanovski nor Makhachev sits at the top.
“Who is the pound-for-pound number one? … That is the big story,” Bisping said. “Recently, we had UFC 284… number one pound-for-pound against the number two… A lot of rankings still have Alexander Volkanovski as the pound-for-pound number one (even though he lost)… Volkanovski is still, against Islam, probably pound-for-pound a better fighter… (But), I don’t think Alexander Volkanovski is the pound-for-pound number one on the planet.
“That title belongs to a man that returns next week to the Octagon. Of course, I’m talking about Jonny ‘Bones’ Jones. He’s been out of action for a while, three years away from the Octagon. We know this. But that’s the guy. That’t the guy who’s run roughshod over the light heavyweight division for years, generations, taking out champion after champion,” Bisping continued. “We’re splitting hairs here, because they’re all good… However, Jon Jones, when you look at what he’s done… You can’t deny the man.”
Quotes via MMA News
Jones ruled the UFC light heavyweight division for several years, but incidents outside of the cage have limited his activity. The 35-year-old is weeks out from returning and debuting at heavyweight. Jones will face Ciryl Gane at UFC 285 for the vacant heavyweight title.
Do you agree with Michael Bisping? Should Jon Jones be No.1 in the UFC’s P4P rankings?
