North West's Michael Bisping to square off against Tim ‘The Barbarian’ Boetsch in UFC 148

By Chris O'Connor

Top ranked middleweight Michael ‘The Count’ Bisping (22-4) is set to face the hard hitting Tim ‘The Barbarian’ Boetsch (15-4) at UFC 148 in July.

Bisping, from Clitheroe in the North West, is coming off the back of a controversial decision loss to Chael Sonnen at UFC on Fox 2 in a title eliminator.

Bisping showed great takedown defence in the fight with Sonnen and appeared to land the better shots on the feet. Sonnen himself admitted after that had the fight gone Bisping’s way he couldn’t have complained.

Prior to the Sonnen fight Bisping was on a four fight win streak. A convincing victory against Boetsch would likely put him back into contention for a shot at the winner of the highly anticipated rematch between the champion Anderson Silva and Bisping’s recent conqueror Chael Sonnen.

Boetsch, a dangerous striker with knockout power, defeated Yushin Okami in his last outing after being dominated for the first two rounds. The win over Okami puts him on a three fight win streak and the man they call ‘The Barbarian’ will be eager to put himself into the title mix up by beating Bisping.

BIsping is undoubtedly Britain’s best candidate to be the first man from the UK to taste UFC gold. This prominence coupled with his outspoken nature make him one of the most hated fighters in America and numerous fighters have set about shutting up the brash British brawler.

If Bisping can give Boetsch the same treatment that he has given to many of the other American opponents who have called him out than ‘The Count’ can put himself firmly in the title picture and well on the way to becoming Britain’s first UFC Champion.