Gastelum flattens Bisping in the first round

After losing his middleweight championship to Georges St-Pierre three weeks ago at UFC 217, Michael Bisping took a short notice fight at UFC Fight Night in Shanghai, China against ninth-ranked Kelvin Gastelum.

Bisping was hoping to exorcise the demons that came with the loss to St-Pierre, but instead suffered a worse loss to Gastelum at 2:30 of the first round.

Bisping had said that he hoped to fight Gastelum and then have his retirement fight in London, England next March.

Gastelum, who moved to middleweight after failing to make weight on two occasions in the welterweight division, nearly missed weight for this event after initially weighing in at 187 lbs. on his first attempt. He was able to cut a pound and make weight on his second attempt.

The win may move Gastelum into the top-5 in the rankings when they are released later this week.

Magomedsharipov cements status as a future contender

26-year-old Zabit Magomedsharipov fought for the second time in the UFC and once again won in dominant fashion with a win over Sheymon Moraes, who was once considered a top prospect in the sport.

According to FightMetric, Magomedsharipov landed 11 takedowns against Moraes, tying the featherweight record for most takedowns landed in a single fight set by Jimy Hettes at UFC 141.

Despite only having two wins, Magomedsharipov has solidified his status as a fighter who will almost certainly contend for the featherweight title at some point in the very near future should he continue to beat opponents in the fashion that he did on Saturday.

At 6’1”, Magomedsharipov is one of the tallest individuals to compete in the division in the UFC’s history and he has been able to use his reach to great advantage against smaller opponents.

Bonuses and Attendance

The UFC awarded Gastelum, Magomedsharipov, Yi Jingliang and Song Yadong with Performance of the Night after all of them recorded exciting fight finishes. Each of them received $50,000 USD in addition to their fight purses.

The UFC’s first event in mainland China drew a sold out crowd of 15,128, which is the second-most attended UFC Fight Night event of 2017.

Cote believes St-Pierre could retire

Newly retired former UFC middleweight title challenger and RDS analyst Patrick Cote has expanded his portfolio by starting Predator Management, which will manage mixed martial artists going forward;

He appeared on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani.

When asked about his fellow French Canadian fighter, middleweight champion Georges St-Pierre, Cote said that he’s not convinced St-Pierre will defend the middleweight title, nor is he convinced that he will fight again.

“I think that (Georges) had a great opportunity to become champion. But Georges against Whittaker, Georges against a big guy like Romero, stuff like that, I don’t know. Georges is a super athlete, but he doesn’t have anything to prove against those big guys, so I think he’s not going to fight at 185 anymore,” Cote told Helwani.

Helwani followed up on whether he thinks St-Pierre will fight again and Cote is unconvinced.

“He was in the cage for almost 20 minutes after the fight, so he was looking away, looking at everything, and he looked like he was grabbing all the energy and just to say, ‘Alright, that was that, I did it. And now I’m not going to miss that anymore,’” Cote replied.

Cote currently manages seven fighters, most of whom fight in the Quebec-based regional MMA organization TKO.

Askren wins retirement fight

Ben Askren, who many regard as the best fighter to never fight in the UFC, defeated Shinya Aoki in the first round of their Friday bout, in what he had labeled as his retirement fight.

Askren, who retires as the welterweight champion of Asian-based organization ONE Championship, racked up an 18-0 record.

Askren was the former Bellator welterweight champion when he left the organization to compete elsewhere. When he was spurned by the UFC and not offered a contract, Askren signed a six-fight deal with ONE and went 6-0-1 with five finishes.

While Askren said that the bout was his retirement fight, he did open the door to a comeback if the right opportunity arose.

That opportunity would be a big money fight with Georges St-Pierre and the number that piqued his interest was $2 million (USD).

However, after Askren’s previously pointed comments regarding UFC president Dana White, the possibility of him coming out of retirement seems miniscule.