Joe Rogan Questions Michael Bisping’s Quick Turnaround for Kelvin Gastelum Fight

During the JRE MMA Show podcast, UFC analyst Joe Rogan criticized the turnaround for Michael Bisping’s fight against Kelvin Gastelum at UFC Fight Night 122. Bisping lost the fight in the first round by knockout. However, Bisping took the fight just three weeks after he was finished by Georges St-Pierre at UFC 217. Below are some highlights (transcript via MMAjunkie).

Rogan on Bisping’s turnaround: “I don’t think you should be allowed to fight three weeks after you have a brutal fight like Michael Bisping did with GSP. He got rocked, he got choked unconscious, and then three weeks later he’s fighting a really dangerous up-and-coming Kelvin Gastelum? Kelvin is a beast. He’s got nasty boxing and that’s what he showed in that fight. He hit him with a beautiful straight jab and a right hand behind it. That kid is just on fire. He’s on another level right now.”

His thoughts on the fight: “Would he have been able to do that if he fought the Bisping who was training for Georges St-Pierre? If Bisping did not have the Georges St-Pierre fight and just went right into the Kelvin Gastelum fight, would the same result have happened? It very well could have. The way Kelvin hits, he’s fast as (expletive); his hands are beautiful.”

Rogan on protecting fighters from themselves: “You really have to protect the fighter from themselves. You really can’t be letting a guy fight three weeks after a brutal fight like that. It just does not make sense. I don’t think it’s smart. I understand the UFC needed someone to fill in on short notice because Anderson Silva tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs and they did not want to lose the Shanghai main event. It turns into an even bigger fight when you’ve got the former middleweight champion right off his loss. Three weeks later fight again? It’s just not smart. I know Bisping wanted to do it, I know Bisping would probably do it again. If you asked Bisping to fight in a few weeks he would probably do it again. Someone was talking about him fighting in England, probably in March. Boy, that’s less crazy, but still, crazy. We’re basically into December.”