Watch: Michael Bisping hedges his bets for every UFC champion in 2022
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Michael Bisping
2022 has begun and it’s time for another year of exciting bouts and possibly new champions in the different weight classes in the UFC and the new year starts off with a bang as UFC 270 is right around the corner with two title fights taking place in the heavyweight and flyweight division.
Fans and MMA pundits have already started to vote for who they believe will emerge as champions and one of them giving their predictions on who will be champion of each division by the end of 2022 is Michael Bisping.
The former middleweight champion sat down with Adam Catterall and Nick Peet for a special episode on BT Sport‘s YouTube channel discussing who they think will be champions of the different weight classes in the UFC at the end of 2022.
Bisping kept it safe with most of his predictions but did however use a sort of a wildcard in the welterweight division.
Brandon Moreno is Bisping’s flyweight champion by the end of 2022 as he considered him to be a class above the rest.
In the bantamweight division, he called out Petr Yan to retain the title and said that he would even defend it in a possible bout against TJ Dillashaw.
Max Holloway was his pick for the featherweight champion as he believed that a trilogy fight would take place with Alexander Volkanovski on a later date and ‘Blessed’ would edge ‘The Great’.
His lightweight champion was an easy pick as he said that Islam Makhachev had the ability and the path laid out for him and after beating Beneil Dariush, he would take on the title fight against whoever is holding the belt by then.
His pick for the welterweight champion was a huge shock as he placed his dreams on fellow Britain Leon Edwards taking the title home at the end of 2022.
Bisping said, “Leon Edwards has been out there in the trenches, doing the work, getting the wins, improving the skills, and you just gonna toss that to one side. How dare you? Leon Edwards will go up against Kamaru Usman and he’ll probably get beat, but for the sake of this conversation, I’m gonna say Leon Edwards will be the champion because I’m a dreamer, I’m a Brit, I believe in him.”
He went on to say that though he loves the way Robert Whittaker fights, Israel Adesanya would come out the victor in their fight and still be middleweight champion at the end of the year.
For the light heavyweight champion, he chose the Czech UFC fighter, Jiri Prochazka and he predicted Ciryl Gane to end the year as heavyweight champion but said that he wasn’t sure if he would beat Francis Ngannou at UFC 270.
Michael Bisping goes on to predict his UFC women’s champions by the end of 2022
Along with the men’s weight division champions, Michael Bisping had also given his predictions on the women’s champions.
He trusted Rosa Namajunas to continue as the women’s strawweight champion and said that Zhang Weili doesn’t have the skill to become champion yet.
Valentina Shevchenko as women’s flyweight champion was his easiest pick as Bisping said that no one comes close to her ability within the division.
His one and only double champ contender was Amanda Nunes as Bisping expects her to beat Julianna Pena in their rematch for the bantamweight title and once she regains it, she would even go on to become the featherweight champion thus establishing her status as the UFC’s women’s ‘GOAT’.
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Nimish Ganapathy
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