The anticipation to hear what UFC London (Fight Night 83) was all about was almost too hard to contain for some. Tickets were about to go on sale for the event, and we still didn’t know who was going to be on the card. Today, the UFC at least gave us a glimpse of who we can expect to see on the card, and it appears it will be quite a solid Fight Night. The event is to be held in the O2 Arena in London, England on February 27th, 2016.
Potential Headliner?
A middleweight showdown between Michael Bisping and Gegard Mousasi (ranked 7th and 8th respectively) appears to be the headliner of the event, although the bout’s placement has not been verified. Bisping has not fought in England since October 16th, 2010 when he picked up a decision win over Yoshihiro Akiyama. “The Count” is currently riding a two-fight win streak with decision wins over CB Dolloway and most recently Thales Leites who he defeated in Scotland back in July. His opponent, Gegard Mousasi, will be looking to rebound from a devastating TKO loss he suffered against Uriah Hall in late September.
As far as the match up goes, both Mousasi and Bisping are technical strikers, but Bisping works at a much faster pace. However, in doing so, he leaves himself open to heavy counters. While neither Mousasi nor Bisping have shown incredible power, they have very deep understandings of the finer nuiances involved in striking. In the grappling department, Bisping has shown phenomenal defense while Mousasi is a threat anywhere on the mat. The real x-factor coming in to this fight is health and motivation; Bisping hasn’t looked the same ever since his eye injury while Mousasi has lost nearly all momentum in the UFC. This fight doesn’t have much in terms of title implications, but it’s a fantastic match up that I’ve wanted to see for a long time.
Two More Bouts
Also to be featured on the card is a grudge match between “Mr. Finland” Makwan Amirkhani and England’s Mike Wilkinson. After Amirkhani’s second UFC victory over Masio Fullen in June, he called out Mike Wilkinson and labeled it personal. Why is it personal? Wilkinson knocked out Amirkhani’s teammate, Niklas Backstrom, and in doing so landed some controversial late blows. While many speculate that Amirkhani is just trying to hype up the fight, there could very well be some serious bad-blood between the two. To add more interest to this bout, it was recently announced on Makwan’s Instragram that he would be leaving Allstar Training Center in Sweden and be moving to another gym. The reason for this leave was also deemed personal by Makwan as it appears a trusted friend of his at the gym did something to prompt Makwan’s departure.
At lightweight, Northern Ireland’s Norman Parke will be taking on Rustam Khabilov in a great match up between two former prospects. Parke recently rebounded from two split decision losses when he closed out Reza Madadi in October. Khabilov on the other hand dropped a split decision in a minor upset to Adriano Martins early this year. Both Parke and Khabilov have shown exceptional grappling skills in previous contests, so I feel that they match up very well with one another.
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