Michael Bisping: “I was not for one second buying Jose Aldo as the featherweight champion”

Over the weekend, in the main of UFC 212, streaking Hawaiian star Max Holloway claimed the undisputed UFC featherweight title with an exciting, third-round TKO of the once-dominant Jose Aldo. In the opinion of UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping, this is the best possible thing that could have happened for the featherweight division.

“I think it’s fantastic that Max Holloway won and I think he had to win to put life back into the 145 [pound] division,” Bisping said on his podcast Believe You Me. “Because honestly, Jose Aldo is a great fighter, Jose Aldo had an amazing career, Jose Aldo this, Jose Aldo that, all this f**king good stuff is so positive – I was not for one second buying Jose Aldo as the featherweight champion. I’m sorry but he got knocked the eff out in 13 seconds and then in his next fight he fights Frankie Edgar and all of the sudden he’s the champion again. So for me, I never bought into that.

“On the other side, we had Max Holloway on a 10-fight win streak, getting better and better with every fight,” he continued. “The whole interim title fight at UFC 206 against Anthony Pettis, that was a little weak sauce so to speak but still, he beat him. Then he fights the undisputed champion which is bullshit because he’s not the undisputed champion because he just got knocked out in his fight previous.”

“Now, fortunately, Max Holloway went out there and destroyed him Great fight, very, very entertaining fight. Well done. So now we have, I think it’s fair to say, a legitimate champion that nobody can disparage or take away from because yes, he got beat by Conor but that was three or four years ago now and Max is a different fighter today. So 145 has a solidified, definite, undisputed featherweight champion of the world which I think is great for the division.”

What do you think of these comments from Michael Bisping?

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 6/6/2017.