Just got around to watching this fight.
Bisping was retarded for calling to Herb Dean for his mouthpiece, he is supposed to get it in a clear break in the action, and not when Silva is putting hands to him. As for whether it was a knockout, in MMA, that is a knockdown. A knockout is ruled when someone can no longer adequately defend themselves against strikes. If there was more time on the clock, Silva probably turns it into a knockout... But the bell saved Bisping here. He did stay seated for quite awhile and got up to his feet VERY groggy, but was not clearly out cold when he was on the mat. I mean, we'll never know if Silva would have finished, but round time is round time.
As for the rest of the fight. I thought Silva underestimated Bisping just a little and he wasn't able to trap him into as many huge blows as he wanted. It was clear he was manipulating him into KO strikes, but aside from the mouthpiece confusion, he didn't do it fast enough. Silva kept backing himself to the cage to play mindgames and look for his opening in the beginning rounds, but he was still there taking strikes, losing those rounds while he was biding his time. The Bisping knockdown really changed the fight and where Silva had a real chance to finish. In the following round he just didn't press offensively like you would expect on a fighter that JUST got downed, and still wanted to wait for the perfect strike instead. I thought Bisping recovered very well and actually took the round. In the final round, where Silva finally decided to be the aggressor, you see how dominant he could have been the whole fight. Had the fight 3 rounds to 2 for Bisping. Wouldn't argue if they had announced Silva the winner, but definitely felt he wasn't able to do enough and just ran outta time.
