By Chris Howie
MMANEWS.COM Staff Writer

UFC Middleweight title contender Michael Bisping is on the shelf with an injured knee right now but he's lobbying for a title shot against Chael Sonnen, IF Sonnen is able to defeat Anderson Silva at UFC 148.

Bisping was a guest on HDNet this week and discussed his place in the division right now and broke down why he thinks he deserves a title shot pending the UFC 148 out come:

"I wanna fight ASAP. Obviously, it depends on the knee and how well it goes. But I'm gonna do everything in my power to ensure that I can train, ASAP, as I said. I'd love to fight on the first of September card. That may be too quick. I know Hector Lombard's now fighting Tim Boetsch. He's gonna replace me there. So they're busy. Chael Sonnen's fighting Anderson Silva. I think Chael wins that fight. At least I think. The first fight is gonna give him a lot of confidence. The way he fought, handily for four and a half rounds. I think he's gonna go in there with a lot of confidence and do the same thing, but not get submitted in the last round.

After that, Chael's gonna need someone to challenge him, and I mean, who is there? Vitor Belfort's injured. I mean, who are the challengers? I was fighting Chael for the number one contender. Just because I narrowly lost that fight doesn't mean I go to the back of the pile. So I'm hoping to fight for the title. Hopefully, I'll get the knee correct, and then they're gonna need a challenger. I'm here, ready and waiting."

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