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Michael “The Count” Bisping (-115) vs. Denis Kang (-115)

by Stan Leung
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Bet on UFC 105 at BetCRIS

UFC 105: Couture vs. Vera
November 14, 2009 7 GMT
Michael Bisping vs. Denis Kang
UFC Betting Pick: Denis Kang (-115)

Bet this MMA UFC fight at BetCRIS

Middleweight bout: Michael “The Count” Bisping (-115) vs. Denis Kang (-115)

I am unsure if Michael “The Count” Bisping (19-2) has even recovered yet from the brutal knockout he received against Dan Henderson at UFC 100. At that time he had no business being in a Mixed Martial Arts fight with a top level fighter and the same can be said about his next MMA fight versus Denis Kang (32-11-2).

Bisping is still very green when it comes to MMA while Kang is more experienced, a better striker, a better grappler and overall, a better fighter. Once again Bisping is been given the opportunity to be in a fight he has no business of being in—Kang is a proven top level MMA fighter while the jury is still out on Bisping.

When it comes to UFC sports betting, the sports book oddsmakers are giving Bisping favorable odds. This might be due to the fact that UFC 105 will be held in England and in the past Bisping has been on the receiving end of favourable decisions there. He was clearly the lesser of the two combatants when he faced off against Matt Hamill at UFC 75 - Champion vs. Champion but the judges gave the home country fighter the win regardless. Dennis Kang should be a -300 betting favorite in this fight so I cannot understand why BetCRIS has him equal with Bisping at -115. Some other sportsbooks has Kang at -135 but whatever the case may be, I would recommend a large bet on Kang to win this fight.

Bisping trains in Widnes, England at the Wolfslair MMA Academy. Though there are some notables from Wolfslair such as Rampage Jackson, Cheick Kongo and Paul Kelly, Jackson has been in Vancouver Canada of late filming for the new A-Team movie and Kongo and Kelly are both one dimensional fighters—who is left in that camp as a worthy training partner for Bisping? While Bisping has been checking to see if he still has all his teeth from his KO by Henderson, Kang on the other hand has been in Brazil for the last three months training at the Carlson Gracie main camp and training gi and no gi at other various clubs. For the last three to five months Kang has gone back to training in gi to tighten up his ground game. Aside from training in Montréal with George St Pierre, Kang has returned to American Top Team to complete his training. At ATT there are over 20 legitimate black belts and many MMA fighters for Kang to train with. On a daily basis Kang meets up with the likes of Gesias Calvancante, Marcelo Garcia, Jeff Monson, Jorge Santiago, Thiago Silva, Antonio Silva, Thiago Alves, Marcus Aurelio, Cole Miller, Mike Brown, and Bobby Lashley just to name a few—a list of who’s who in the MMA world.

Striking. Many believe that Bisping is a good striker. Though he may have good kicks due to his kickboxing background, I believe the extent of his abilities end here—by far, Kang is the better striker. Bisping tends to be very open when he fights and when he kicks, he rotates too far. When he over-rotates, he is in an off position—this is when Kang will counterstrike. Kang is fundamentally a better striker and if one was to examine his striking technique, he is one of the purist technical strikers in the world. His head is always up and his chin is tucked in and he always has his hands is a good position to parry any kicks or strikes.

It will be very hard for Bisping to land a punch when Kang’s striking defense is perfect. His striking style is similar to that of Vitor Belfort. If one was to look at Belfort’s last fight with Rich Franklin, you will note that Franklin is not a very good technical striker and that he had problems with Belfort’s defense. Bisping will have the same problem with Kang as he will find it very difficult to get to Kang. Kang studied the art of stand up from former three time world boxing champion Tony Pep and has also worked with Howard Davis Jr., a former 1976 Summer Olympic gold medal winner in boxing. From this alone, Bisping lacks the fundamentals to compete with any high level UFC middleweight at this time in his career.

When comes to wrestling and grappling again, Kang is heads and shoulders above Bisping in this category. Kang is a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu under Marcus Soares who is Carlson Gracie’s highest ranking black belt with seven degrees. He was a direct student of Carlson Gracie Sr. and a member of the school since the first generation of the Carlson Gracie Team in Brazil. Soares was also a past senior and main instructor at the Carlson Gracie Academy. Not many fighters in the world are privileged to meet a seventh degree Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt, let alone be trained by one. In Brazil, Soares taught ATT founders Marcus "Conan" Silveira, Marcelo Silveira and Ricardo Liborio so it is only fitting that Kang’s grappling style is very aggressive, similar to that of Carlson Gracie.

Kang has been working on his wrestling with Georges St Pierre in Montréal and we are all aware of how skilled he is in this facet of MMA—if this fight goes to the ground it will over very quickly. Kang has the ability to shoot in and take Bisping down at will, and if this fight goes to the ground, Kang has such a solid base that he will be able to submit Bisping with ease.

Bottom Line: Bisping has to pick his poison. Does he want to stand up and get hit hard or does he want to be destroyed on the ground. For the last four months Kang has been refining his grapping game in Brazil. I would assume that Marcus Soares and the guys at ATT would have encouraged Kang to take Bisping to the ground in order to take full advantage of his dominate base for a ground and pound victory or a kimura from half guard.

If one was to look at his last few matches Kang had gone for the submission—but it was a little sloppy. He has since gone to Brazil to correct this problem. I predict that in this fight with Bisping he will go back to his grappling roots. Kang has always been a good grappler but has since begun to rely more on striking. When we see him at UFC 105, Kang will be a more focused and dedicated fighter—which is bad news for Michael Bisping.

When it comes to sports betting, this fight is a no contest. Kang is a better fighter in all facets of the game and the only advantage Bisping has is that this fight will be taking place in England—his home county. To recap, Kang is a black belt in Jiu-Jitsu, he trains at ATT with some of the best fighters in the world, has trained with St. Pierre to hone his wrestling skills, has a great technical striking background and has fought all over the world under many scenarios.

Kang will take Bisping down at the start of the fight and ground and pound him in side control. By the second round, Kang will have worn down Bisping. He will taken him down again, control him in side control and win it with a kimura.

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