On Monday, reigning UFC middleweight king Anderson Silva revealed he intended to take most of 2013 off to concentrate on his role in Sensei Steven Seagal’s action movie and the opening of his gym in Los Angeles. That scenario might work out well for “The Spider,” but it leaves his division’s top contenders standing in quicksand, and Michael Bisping (Pictured) wants the UFC to do something about it.
After catching wind of Silva’s agenda, the boisterous Brit took to his twitter and asked UFC president Dana White to manufacture a 185-pound belt if he allows Silva to take an extended hiatus.
“@danawhite if Anderson wants to take time off to be a movie star make me and vitor for the interim title????” Bisping asked White.
Bisping and Vitor Belfort are slotted to headline the Octagon’s return to Brazil on January 19th. “The Count” posted a unanimous decision win over Brian Stann at UFC 152 to get back in the win column. He had dropped a close decision loss to Chael Sonnen in the bout prior.
Belfort is coming off a submission loss to light heavyweight champ Jon Jones at UFC 152 in Toronto.
If an interim champion were to be crowned, undefeated Chris Weidman would certainly like to throw his name in the hat.
Due to injuries, the UFC currently has two interim champions in their eight divisions – welterweight (Carlos Condit) and bantamweight (Renan Barao).