"The Count" Michael Bisping will be dropping a weight class down to the middleweight division for 2008. Many would consider this a bold move considering the depth and toughness of the 185lb division, not to mention to get the belt you have to dismantle one of the best and precise strikers in the world. The knees of which can result in many hours of facial reconstruction and plastic surgery.

This being said, it’s not like the light heavyweight division is much easier with Rampage, Griffin, Shogun, and others. Bisping says he has has gone back and forth on the issue pretty much his whole career.

“Even from my very first pro fight (April 2004), people were telling me that I was a little too small for the light heavies. But I kept winning and, at least before I stepped up to the UFC, I was winning easily so I didn’t really take much notice.”

Bisping says he has been asked about dropping to middleweights by not only writers but fighters as well. All sorts of people including his friend and training partner Quinton "rampage" Jackson, would tell him dropping weight would be the best move for his career. Bisping says he knew middleweight was the place to be. He weighed 211lbs one month before is fight at UFC 78, while other light heavyweights walked around at over 230lbs.

Bisping even went on record, before the Rashad Evans fight, saying that he was going to move to middleweight should he lose the fight. But even though he lost a controversial decision to Evans, he still had to think long and hard about making the move.

“I didn’t feel like I lost anything in defeat,” Bisping said. “I felt I performed very well against one of the best wrestlers in the UFC in Rashad. I regret not pushing it a little harder in the last round but, overall, I can’t complain about a controversial loss because I was coming off a controversial win. My performance again made me go back and forth about going to middleweight but, in the end, this is my career and how I make a living, and although it isn’t that I can’t hack it at 205 pounds, it doesn’t make sense to give every opponent an advantage when I don’t have to.”

The Count says at middleweight he will be just as strong if not stronger than his competition. He says he will also be fitter than he is at light heavyweight. So he called UFC matchmaker Joe Silva and he is happy he did three weeks later.

“At this level in the UFC, every little edge you can give yourself is so important and here I was starting fights at a physical disadvantage, strength and size wise. Even if it gives me an extra 3%, that can make all the difference in certain fights. There are some great matches for me at middleweight and I am looking forward to maybe being the bigger man in the Octagon for a change.”

Bisping is expecting to make his middleweight debut in early spring 2008. He says he is looking forward to the challenge of making weight, but want’s to go ahead and apologize now because he is going to be one moody SOB come fight week.

I am excited to see "the count" fight at this weight. He should be a force to be reckoned with at 185. Although he will lose some of his advantage in foot and hand speed, I don’t think it will make that much of a difference. This will make for some great match ups in the middleweight division. More mma news coming your way!