UFC matchmaker and other officials continue to work over time to cobble together a solid UFC 85: “Bedlam” fight card for the June 7 pay-per-view (PPV) event that takes place at the O2 Arena in London, England.
This time it’s Jason Day who has been asked to step up and fill-in for the incarcerated Chris Leben and fight hometown favorite, Michael Bisping, in a middleweight showdown slated for the main card.
Talk about one hell of an opportunity for the Canadian native to step up big against one of the promotion’s most marketed fighters, eh?
Day is an extremely tough — albeit relatively unknown — fighter who wowed fans and critics alike with his knockout of Alan Belcher at UFC 83: “Serra vs. St. Pierre 2″ on April 19. He was an underdog heading in to the bout, meaning most did not expect him to win … especially the way that he did.
It was an impressive Octagon debut, and in the UFC world where no good deed goes unpunished, Day has been rewarded with a high profile fight against the charismatic The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) 3 205-pound champion.
Bisping is fresh of a dominant performance at UFC 83 himself, putting it on Charles McCarthy for the majority of the first round. “Chainsaw” could not answer the bell for the second frame because of an arm injury and Bisping secured his first win at 185.
This is actually a very tricky fight for Bisping — Day is a very well-rounded fighter who appears to improve fight after fight. This can and will more than likely be a very competitive bout. He is not a “can” or some other sacrificial lamb who the UFC is “feeding” Bisping.
Day has got some nice skills and will look to capitalize on a great opportunity. While the Leben fight had fireworks written all over it, don’t write this one off too quick … it should be an entertaining scrap.
For the most recent UFC 85 fight card click here.
116 Comments »
Hmm…I guess
“Day has been rewarded with a high profile fight against the charismatic The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) 3 185-pound champion.”
Kendall Grove was the 185lb contract winner and Bisping was the 205lb.
I’m interested in seeing Day fight again, but I don’t like this matchup. The UFC needed a bigger name to fight Bisping. They should have scrapped the TUF 7 Finale fight between Kendall Grove and Evan Tanner. Then Bisping could have fought Grove or Tanner. And Day could have fought the other of the two at the finale. That sounds better to me. Oh well. I’m not knocking Jason Day, but with the loss of a REAL main event, they really should have Bisping fighting against a bigger name. Not someone with one undercard UFC win.
VM: I could not agree more….good stuff!
Agreed. I like your proposal better.
Me too…..if not, it should be free on SPIKE
Dooms day may not be a “big name” fighter or well known outside of canada but he brings alot to the plate.He will make bisbing work, just because he hasnt been in the ufc long doesnt mean he not a great fighter and doesnt deserve this fight, day worked his way up from nothing. Bisbing entered the ultimate fighter and got trained by legends of the sport to get in the octogon. so dont push day to the side hes a very well rounded fighter and brings alot to the plate
Gracias.
Attention Bitches!!!!!!!!!!1
Affliction’s 1st event is OFFICIALLY ON!!!! Its called “Afliction Banned” or something like that and both the Fedor vs. Sylvia and Barnett vs. Rizzo fights have been confirmed!!!!!!!!!!
President or VP o f Affliction Clothing made the announcement today!
LONG LIVE KING FEDOR!!!!!!
LOL John blew his load. lets just hope the card lives up to how it looks. I hope Timmy KO’s Fedor that way Randy
s fight with Fedoris useless
1st!! right here! look at me!! oh wait I would be a complete tool to write that. hint hint
john. is it gonna be on ppv? i would think so. hope so to.
MMAweekly (Tito Ortiz):
“At this point it’s pretty much stopped,” he said of the contract negotiations. “I gave them my first offer. They came back at me with some totally… I thought was ridiculous (offer). I held out, and I held out, and I held out until they gave me something else, which was a six-fight contract, and I don’t want to be held down for six fights with them.
“I want to go to a company that they’ve got respect, that’s the biggest thing. It’s not about the money, people got to understand, the money’s going to be there no matter what. It’s about a fair cut and being respected as a champ, as the fighter I am.”
After his May 24 fight against Lyoto Machida, Ortiz stated he has a 60-day waiting period before he can negotiate with another company. During that time he plans on attending some shows, checking out the production value and how the various organizations handle promoting their events.
Good stuff. Thanks.
This is a terrible fight for Bisping to accept! Day has the name of a “can” (in the eyes of most fans) but much more skills then a “can. Bisping wont have much to gain with a win, and he has a lot to loose. Its too much of a risk, with little reward (for his career).
Day is no pushover, the problem is that not to many people know about him. I hope no one misinterprets this post and thinks that I am bashing Day’s fighting ability because I am not…I am fully aware of how dangerous he is and thats why I think its a bad idea for Bisping….He is just to good of a fighter, that is a no name, so If I were Bisping’s management I would not let him take this fight.
He should fight Quarry, who isnt that much better then Day, but Quarry at least has somewhat of a name.
This is a really bad idea for Bisping.
Hopefully Bisping wins this fight, but I remain nervous!!! I wonder what the odds will be? If Day is a HUGE underdog, I will have to bet money on him (although I will be rooting for Bisping).
As a Bisping fan, I am worried.
i agree with you here day could easily pull it off! not alot to gain but lots to loose
I hope Bisping gets KTFO
Not gonna happen Hamilton…….. would be the upset of the year if he did though!!!!!!!
I like this fight for Bispimg. It’s the next step up from Macarthy (hah hah!)and hopefully another level of experience at MW. Would have prefered Leben, but he’ll be there as Bispings next opponent. I like Bispings willingness to fight as often as he’s given the chance too.
hopefully day will be ready given the short notice. he seems like a talented fighter who can pull of the upset. Bisping is just on the card for the uk fan draw, hopefully day takes him to the ground and exposes bisbings weak ground game.
NICE WORK LEBEN!!!!
This is a big fight for Jason and this could really put him on the map if he beats The Count.
Don’t know much about Day…should I be excited??
hey kevin believe it or not im more worried for bisping in this fight than i would be against leben.day is way more well rounded and can finish fights different ways.his rubber guard against belcher was awesome and in the end outsruck alan aswell.this is a tougher fight imo
was that fight televised? I have it on my DVR if it was?
no, it was on the undercard. most websites have the fite now, shouldnt be too hard to find. definately a good 1st fite in the ufc for him. showed allot of skill.
thanks buddy, i’ll check it out
he also owns wins over david the crow louseau and jonathan goulet but has a loss to patrick cote.
wow, thats an impressive resume!!
I’m sorry I know bisbing has some talent but it just makes me ill when i see how much hype this guy gets when he really doesnt deserve it. He’s just not tht great a fighter and until he beats a top contender that wont change the way most feel. I think the ufc has been giving weak opponents since he won tuf in hopes he would progress his overall game, but from what ive seen he hasnt done that. its the same thing with roger huerta, yeah he beat guido, but lets face it, he was losing that fite and caught clay with that knee. While I know it’s not on the same level as the crazy over promotion for Kimbo b/c of his street fighting backround, pushing and marketing a fighter stricly b/c you want to increase you fan base either with a certain race or geographic location is just plain wrong.
hamil and evans weak???plus bisping was undersized and still did well.evans was just about to fight chuck for no 1 contender in many peoples and danas eyes so i think youre way off the mark!!
Ummm, clearly you saw the hamill fight the way the judges did….wrongly!!! matt hamill won that fight no question about it. Bisbing looked like kalib starnes in that fite mostly running away from hamill. even bisbing basically admitted he didnt agree wit the decision after seeing the fite and hearing the responses from the fans. And the rashad fite to everyone was pretty boring, it was the main event of a ppv that people did not want to see and everyone is in agreement about that. i will give bisbing some credit, his takedown defense has gotten better with time.
go rewatch it, biisping stand up was better, and he nullified the take downs by getting right back up
I agree Kevin. This is the reson I was not that impressed with the Lidell/Evans fight. Chuck has a great takedown defense and would have left Evans with no offense (assuming his arsenal has not expanded beyond the Bisping fight).
I’ll say it again, Bisping is not as bad as many people think. He is certainly not ready for the top tier fighters but he does belong in this game.
agree with ya there bobby…. the count certainly gets the feathers well and truly rustled with all the Yank mma fans. In my opinion.. and let me stress this is only MY opinion based on previous experiance workin alongside americans. They are far too patriotic and bias! ie if you ain’t a fellow “countryman” then basically you are not one of them.
I hope bisping becomes a world champion…. If anything just to shut all these anti bisping fans up!! Then again no doubt all these bisping haters will come out with something equally pathetic
This is only MY opinion like i said. And by no means do i mean that every single american thinks this way!
We only feel that Bisping lost to Hamill because we watched the fight, not because Bisping is British. That was a gift. However, not only am I an American, but I was born on Long Island, and I still was rooting for GSP over Serra.
Mike, your opinion is fine, that’s what this site is for. I just happen to disagree with it. Your theory therefore cannot explain the popularity of GSP, Fedor, Silva, Big Nog just to name a few. Most Americans couldn’t care less about where you’re from, but how you handle yourself in the cage. Bisping has a fantastic record, but against who? We’re just tired of all the hype when he hasn’t faced ANYONE of merit or top 10 ranking. He went from being a B level LHW, to everyone talking about him beating Franklin or Hendo and challenging Silva for the belt just cuz he dropped a weightclass? C’mon now. Anyone one of those three would beat him to death. It seems to us that Bisping is getting fed “cans” to preserve his popularity in the European market so the UFC can grow. If he were to call fighters out, take them on and beat them, he’d earn a ton of fans and respect. He just seems to be kind of a d*ck, that’s why I don’t like him. And a lot of people say Americans don’t like him b/c he’s not one of us, I think most Brits like him ONLY for the fact that he’s one of you. Let him fight anyone, ANYONE of top 10-hell, top 20 and win. Until then I’ll remain a skeptic.
There goes the veiled hope that Dan Henderson would save the day.
I feel ya on that one.
I knew there was ZERO chance of the UFC having Bisping fight Hendo, But I was dreaming aswell..
They need to book Hendo soon..I am dying to see his next fight..I dont care if it is agianst TupperWare, I just want to see him fight.
I could see that. TupperWare vs. Dan Henderson at UFC 88: Happy Thoughts.
Its going to be Hendo vs. Franklin sometime soon.
Which sucks considering Frankin is practically my favorite Fighter and Hendo is like in the top 5.
Well Jason is pretty good and I don’ think that he’ll be doing a Charles McCarthy. This should be a good test for Bisping as Jason as nothing to loose. Jason has just beat Alan Belcher and has a recent victory of David Loiseau as well as a victory over Jonathan Goulet. He did however loose to Patrick Cote wat back in TKO 29 in the first round.
I am a Canadian but I think I would have liked to have seen Quarry fight Bisping. Bisping has a lot to loose here.
Hopefully (but I doubt it) Dana and the UFC will reconsider not showing so many of the GOOD undercard fights. Had they actually shown the Day fight on the last PPV, people might be a little more excited for this upcoming fight.
Unfortunately, I know ZERO about day, despite having paid $45 for a card that he was on, and apparently did very well on.
That McCarthy fight technically ended due to injury but really ended because he ate about 20 consecutive knees.
I cant beleive the UFC didnt find Elvis Sinosec or some scrub who shouldnt even be fighting to face Bisping.
They have been babying him his entire 5 or 6 fights or so in the Octagon. Day did look pretty good in his debut. the UFC must know something we dont……Like Day in injured and still agreed to fight or is scared of Bisping. The UFC would take the chance of Bisping losing. I mean I am happy as heel that they actually faced him aginst someone who can fight.
I hope Bisping finally gets revealed for the average fighter he is. The UFC has been bringing up Bisping and making him look like a good fighter to the uneducated fan. I hope Bisping get KTFO!!!!! I thought they would continue to give him the Kimbo treatment and give him fights in which he is a big favorite to win. Cant wait to see him gets his ass handed to him
fightfan, you totally had it right, that exactly what i was saying a few posts ago, lol
how have the ufc been babying bisping.here in the uk theres absolutely zero wrestling treaining on an elite level.we dont do it at high school and theres no gyms.its only because of the explosion in mma that the gyms are able to bring some wrestling coaches over.so the ufc threw him in the deep end straight away imo.so hes beaten two decent jj guys,stopped a veteran(whos submitted jeremy horn and lost decisions to babalu and frank shamrock)lost and won two close decisions to two a grade wrestlers and you still wanna piss an d moan and give him no credit!bispings gonna open some eyes in the mw division believe me
well he was whupped around by hamill and rashad beat too! they are good fighters and you must remember hamill was injured thats why he was striking alot with bisping and thats why he couldnt hold him down! and i dont know what happenend with rashad but he looked a shadow of his 3 previous fights! so before that who did he fight? eric schaffer and elvis sinosic! not great! if you compare bisping to forest griffen yes he has been babied a bit! hopefully though if he wins this he will get a big name guy! either one of jason mcdonald, nate marquardt,thales leites or ricardo almeida! gotta be one of the better fighters
While I would not call Hamill and Evans top tier fighters, I sure wouldn’t call them cans or scrubs. I believe Bisping is better than many people give him credit for. Is he ready for the big time MWs? Hell no. However, he is not average. Then again, I wouldn’t call too many pro fighters average.
It’s not to hard to find Day’s last fight. I watched it again and he definately looked good. He’ll be strong than bisbing. In the fight against belcher, a pretty good ground specialist, he was great off his back and cuased more damage from there.
But I am surprised the ufc didnt put nate quarry in this fight, as I think quarry mite provide a tougher fight. But well see, im definately rooting for Day in this one!! He’s had some good fights outside the ufc and he might be able to take this one.
Bobby,
Do you mean stronger physically or stronger in the sense that he is a better all-around fighter? Don’t let Bisping’s body type fool you. He still rolls with 205ers including Rampage. Rampage even made the comment that Bisping has not lost any strength dropping to 185.
Is Day stronger as in an all-around fighter? Yes, I agree with that statement.
well thats just a gay i would of rather see leban than day thank you joe silva for another scrub move
It’s not Joe Silva’s fault. Its leben’s for getting a DUI and then violating his parole. Normally i dont praise silva and dana white but they’ve tried everything to save this card. originally is was suppose to be liddell vs shogun. shogun got hurt so it was liddell vs evans. liddell got hurt, then it was irvin vs evans, hughes vs alves, and bisbing vs leben. then leben gets thrown in jail for violating his parole which he’s done who knows how long ago so they had to find his replacement on 3 weeks notice. Most upper tier fighters dont take a fite on that short a notice, they have too much to lose. We were lucky when gsp stepped in for matt serra but i wasnt expected henderson someone of that caliber to take this fight on that kind of notice.
Day’s a great fighter but i’d rather see Leben vs Bisping.
agreed
day is gonna end up like tim boescth pushed into things to fast and end up losing. the ufc needs to give these new comers more low profile fights and more time off instead of having him getting his butt kicked and not being right after it.
It worked out pretty good for Boescth in his first UFC fight when he took the Herring fight on short notice.
HE FOUGHT DAVID HEATH NOT HEATH HERRING DONUT!
I MADE A MISTAKE
With all the names being trown around as a posible replacement for Leben, I don’t think anybody mentioned Day (probably because nobody knows who he is). I actually like Day’s chances in this fight, I still think Bisping will win, but he looked pretty decent against Belcher.
Who the hell is Jason Day?
Poor Bisping, he finally thought he was gonna get the stand up battle he’s been asking for against Leben only to end up with another Jiu-Jitsu guy in day. Bisping should win the stand up battle, but Day looks very dangerous on the ground. That said I don’t know why someone suggested Day is the physically stronger of the two? Perhaps because he helps his dad build houses for a living…?
I think a lot of people are doubting Jason Day, but I think that is because we all were sitting there hoping for a Henderson type of fighter to take this fight, but of course, UFC goes down and gets a guy who has had 1 fight in the UFC.
Now, Im not knocking Day, I think his victory over Belcher was not a fluke, I think Day is the real deal, and I think he is a heck of a fighter, but I just think that Bisping needs to face someone other than a striker. I mean he had some problems with Schafer, and Evans defeated him. I really wished we could of seen Maia vs. Bisping, so Maia could dismantle Bisping.
But I think UFC made this because they feel like Bisping will have an upper hand in this fight, and they want him to succeed because he is fighting in his homeland.
I understand your point, but did you see the whole Maia fight or just the crazy ending? Day was totally dominant in his fight and basically did most of the damage off his back from the rubber guard. It was fairly easy to finish Belcher once they stood back up. So I wouldn’t really say Day is all stand up. Bisbing has good submission defense, so I actually think this might be more of a test for Bisbing.
THIs fight is another joke !!!!!!
unless this guy wins i dislike that british guy bisping the kunt
its in england i wouldn’t be suprised whomever they got to fight biz that they will pay em an extra 75,000 to keep their british poster boy alive
Err… Can someone translate this please…
I got nothing
i give day huge props but i dont think it is the right move
I think they should have Irvin v Evans as the co-main event! this is not worthy of co-main event status
In England it is.
Yeah, Bisping is the UK’s poster boy..Of coarse he is going to be co-main event..If it was in the USA? it would be different..
Yeah, but as a pay-per-view,I don’t see this doing so well. At least if it was on Spike, they could make a killing on commercials. I have paid for every fight card since the Ireland card, but I don’t know about this one.
Does this mean Hendo vs franklin soon? Because they should have replaced Leban with either one of them
Call me naive but i have no idea who this kid is!
You are naive
all i know about him is he’s on a 5 fight win streak! He had an impressive KO aginst Belcher!
Should Bisping be more worried about this kid than leben?
this is a joke.
gone from leben who is at a push top 5 in ufc’s middleweights to day.
franklin, hendo, okami this is supposed to be co mainevent
Okami, damn I totally forgot about him that would have been a good match up
Okami has a broken hand. Not to mention he is next in line to fight Anderson. There is zero chance of Okami taking a fight like this.
AFFLICTION MMA PROMOTION OFFICIALIZED ARTICLE
http://www.mmaweekly.com/absolutenm/templates/dailynews.asp?articleid=6241&zoneid=13
VIDEO: JAMES IRVIN TRAIN FOR UFC 85
http://www.cagetoday.com/video-james-irvin-training-in-thailand-for-ufc-85/
This isn’t that bad of a replacement..It could of been worse..
But I agree with what ViolentMike said in his above post..
They should have scratched Tanner/Grove, and had Bisping fight one of them..
awesome! GO CANADA! knock bisbing’s head off!
i called it!!!
How about Leban vs Henderson?? would the Greco Be to much for Lebans left hand?
Hendo would kill Leben.
Just watched the Day/Belcher fight. Wow. I’m anxious to see how this guy matches up with Bisping. Looks like Day has some game.
I know Hamill is a top fighter who bisping fought? and Evans got a shot at Chuck? and he was in the wrong weight class but still got up at will from them? Bisping has had 100s of fights since his teens and he hasnt been knocked out ever!!! It doesnt matter who he fights as he will destroy them all in this weight class until hendo and silva.
Im from the uk and i say Hamill is a top fighter who will get a title shot! but most don’t rate him here using you logic that Bisping hasn’t fought anyone? You don’t know nothing if you think Hamill isnt good.
He’s tough, but not even a top 20 fighter. I think you’re trying to justify your guy’s record. Do you have a poster of Bisping over your bed?
Bisping will break his bones. day has a death wish.
“Obviously I was looking forward to the Leben fight but I guess it wasn’t to be,” said Bisping. “You have to respect Jason Day for stepping in on even shorter notice than myself. I am looking forward to really putting on a great performance in London.”
“I love this fight,” said Day. “Everybody’s been asking me who would I like to fight next, and I said Bisping, but who would have thought it would have come about so quickly. He’s a great fighter, an exciting fighter, tough as nails, and everybody wants that marquee fight where you get the guy that tests you and you slug it out for two or three rounds. I think he’s a pretty good test for me.”
Is there any benefits to Bisping taking this fight? Win or lose how is this a good fight for him. Excellent oppurtunity for Day.
Nice little pay check and doesn’t have to leave home to fight.
But won’t help him with the critics.
Nah, I don’t think it will. I think Day is a good fight, but win and Bisping still won’t get much help with his critics.
To get that he will need to fight a top name/top 10 fighter.
Patrick Cote would of made a good match-up for Bisping.
day looked good in the last match, when they stood up he attacked relentlessly like frank shamrock.. this one could still be a good war im hoping but quarry would of been better
You maybe are right that it won’t help Bisping with the critics , but we know all this wasn’t his fault. Maybe Leben could be made for his next fight but in america? If Bisping ko’s day i bet lots of you would want to go and see that fight especially Bisping haters.
THIS IS A BIG NAME FIGHTER?
Bisping better get KTFO
Why is everybody (from across the pond) surprised that so many people (”yanks”) are’nt huge Bisping fans anymore? I think it’s safe to say that a large number of TUF fans went in to the Hamil/Bisping fight, rooting for Bisping, I was one of them! Regardless of who really won. Bisping came out as if he had ripped Hail’s head off or something. It just smelt bad…real bad. So after Bisping starts beating some stand up competitors, people will jump back on…maybe.
Hamil not Hail…sorry.
Jrandolph - Remember him and Hamill don’t get on? and he offered Hamill a rematch straight away in america! the canadians seemed to love him? he said sorry too! and said he would share a drink with Mcarthy? so all them points PROVE ITS JUST A FEW BITTER YANKS!
JAYSON DAY???? Who in the hell is this guy? This is a no contest bisping in rd.1. What a wast of a fight i hope they moved this to the undercard.
Day will pull off the upset.
Of course Bisping will tko rd 1 the whole division! He will be the man to beat Silva.
This must be a joke.
I think he’s Bisping’s little brother.
im getting sick of people saying ufc has been giving bisping all the easy fights you people dont know nothing. the last 2 fights bisping has had apart from mcarthy was rashad and hamill 2 top wrestlers so how can you say that when in england we dont train wrestling no were near like in the u.s. your talking absolute garbage when you say those things
They will be eating there words soon boyer.
Who’s Jason Day?
i dont no where ppl are getting the information about bisping having a weak ground game, narly all of his fights (the ons in the uk aswell) he has been taken to the ground … what has happend evrytiem ?? he hasnt been pounded out, submitted , even threatend, he always gets back to his feet with ease. he dosent have a weak ground game.
Thats one of his greatest strenghs. he can get back up against americans best cuddlers and huggers Hamill and Evans and they where bigger then him!
bisping has got a brilliant ground game if you notice when people get him in a submission he stays calm and knows exactly wot to do to get out and he ALWAYS gets out i used to train with him and i was amazed with how much he knew on the ground
Replace this fight on the main card with Rivera v. Kampmann.