Should we have expected any different?

*THWACK*
*crowd roars*
Well in my house, it was more *THWACK* and me jumping out of my couch in my sweatpants and yelling "YES!!!!" as my wife eyed me with curiosity and not a small bit of concern for my sanity. Those were the sounds of UFC middleweight Michael Bisping's chances of ever having a title shot dying. Those were the sounds of Vitor Belfort re-inserting himself into the middleweight elite after a brief sojourn to light heavyweight to give the champ Jon Jones a scare.  And, those were the sounds that made a lot of bookies around the world mad after the underdog pulled off the upset.
     But, as I ask in the title, should we have expected any different?  It is, after all, Michael "Count Chokeula" Bisping that we are talking about here.  He has been called the Jim Kelly of the UFC.  To do so is an insult to Mr. Kelly.  At least the Bills made it to the Super Bowl.  This was the third fight that he has been told "Win and you fight for the title." He is 0-3 in those fights. (Henderson, Sonnen, Belfort) Furthermore, he is 0-4 against men who have been UFC or Pride champion. (Evans, Henderson, W Silva, Belfort)
     I know what the UFC is doing here.  It is the same thing that they have been doing since Mark Weir's 10 second knockout of Eugene Jackson at the "Brawl in the Hall" in 2002.  After two more fights (and losses), Weir found himself out of the UFC for the rest of his career. The UFC wants to build an English champion to have a better appeal to the English market.  Why else would Dan Hardy ever get a title shot? They have been riding Count Chokeula's upper but not elite tier talents since TUF 3 in hopes that something would happen.  What has happened is a chain of coulda woulda shouldas.  What I found funny is how Anik and Florian had previously marveled at Bisping's footwork.  I thought that was a bit peculiar since Bisping is famous for being the guy that seemingly begged Dan Henderson for the world famous "H Bomb," seen in this oft memed shot:

by circling into Hendo's power hand.  Shortly after the comments on his footwork, Bisping crouched right into Vitor's shin and found himself on the ground getting pummeled and looking incredibly confused. I think we can definitively say goodbye to Michael Bisping the title contender.
     On another note, hopefully Pedro Nobre finds himself short a UFC contract in the next couple of days.  I know this was in Brazil where football (yeah I said it) is king, but I didn't see Corinthians anywhere.  The horrible acting after perfectly legal shots was despicable.  Good on Dana for making sure that although it was ruled a no contest, Iuri Alcantara still got his win bonus.  Dan Miragliotta got played and this is more reason to allow instant replay.  Those shots were clearly legal; Nobre just decided to do his best Cristiano Ronaldo impression once he figured out he was going to get beaten.
I will be attending Legacy Fighting Championships 17 on February 1st to watch my old instructor Richard Odoms fight Jared Rosholt.  As it is a fairly small show, there are bound to be some blogworthy moments.