Playing a Dangerous Game
Fighters are a different breed of athlete in the grand scheme of professional sports as they are simply built differently.
Although every professional athlete is a different breed when it comes to drive and a hate for losing to help them get to where they are.
Every athlete also heads into a game with that chance that they might get hurt and that their lives could change forever thanks to one freak play.
What separates fighters is that they head into the octagon with about a 99% chance that they will be hurt throughout the fight.
The only time someone can escape is if they throw the first punch and knock out their opponent.
Other than that every fighter is getting hurt at some point in the fight whether it is serious like a major concussion or broke bone or it is minor like a cut.
One way or another there is no chance that a fighter spends their entire career without getting some kind of serious damage.
That makes them a different breed of athlete and they know what they are signing up for but it doesn’t change the difficulty that they face in every fight.
It also makes these athletes easy to love because they take these risks every fight and keep coming back for more.
There are levels of that love though and for most MMA fans the ultimate are those fighters that just seem to love the sport more than others.
Plenty of fighters are good but not every fighter is in it because they love to fight most are in it because it is what they are good at and something that they can make money with.
Those few fighters that just love the sport are the ones that fans love because they are in it because they want to fight.
These are the fighters that will fight anywhere and anytime and they continue to do just that building a reputation.
It isn’t always a good thing though as commissions hand out medical suspensions after every fight for a very good reason.
The body needs time to rest and heal after taking the punishment that it does and commissions will always give everyone that time with their suspensions.
It is more to save fighters from themselves than anything else but this week one fighter ignored that suspension to continue his reputation of fighting at any time and anywhere.
Michael Bisping fought 21 days ago as the main event in UFC 217 when he defended his middleweight belt against Georges St. Pierre.
It wasn’t a particularly brutal fight but Bisping did lose after taking a big shot and then having the oxygen to his brain cut off and being put to sleep.
That earned him a 60-day suspension from the New York State Athletic Commission and for the most part that suspension is held up in North America.
Most other commissions will follow the decisions of others and hold up the medical suspensions.
That is not the same for any of the other country though and so there is a loophole in these medical suspensions.
Bisping took that loophole as he travelled to China without even serving half of his suspension to get back into the octagon.
It is why people love him as he is always willing to fight and jumping in to replace Anderson Silva on short notice only helped him to gain fans.
It might not go over well with commissions in the USA but for Bisping that won’t matter as his career is coming to an end.
The decision to ignore the medical suspension is a big one for his future though and heading in against Kelvin Gastelum he was hoping to get back to winning but some wondered whether the damage he took in the last fight would affect him.
Things didn’t seem to affect him too much as he came out, as usual, looking to pick apart Gastelum on the feet.
It didn’t seem like Bisping was at all cautious as he brought the same style into the octagon against Gastelum that he had for years.
Unfortunately, that also meant leaving himself open for some big shots and Gastelum took full advantage.
The younger fighter landed a big left hand right on the chin of Bisping, immediately putting him down in the first round.
Whether the former champion would have been able to take that punch had he taken the full 60-day suspension, is entirely unknown.
The fact is Bisping lost his second fight in a row after stepping up to take a fight that he really never should have taken.
He will continue to fight but only once more as he confirmed that his final fight will be in London early next year.
For Gastelum this win is a big one as he took out the former champion in the first round, boosting his status in the division.
A big win like that can put him right in the title picture as he looks to make his run in the middleweight division.
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