Last weekend, Bryce Mitchell grabbed a win over Andre Fili. In a fight that saw Mitchell controlling his opponent on the ground, the featherweight showed yet again that he is a problem on the mat. Former middleweight champion Michael Bisping even labeled him a 145-pound version of Khabib Nurmagomedov.

In the lead up to the fight, Bisping, who moonlights as a UFC commentator, talked to Bryce Mitchell about his last fight at UFC 249. Coming off the back of a submission of the year in his last fight, expectations were high for Mitchell.

However, he couldn’t get the finish. He did get extremely close to submitting the jiu-jitsu black belt several times.  Despite coming off with a unanimous decision win, ‘Thug Nasty’ wasn’t happy with his performance.

“Bryce Mitchell, his last fight he went to a decision, and he was like, it sucked. It was terrible. And he wasn’t terrible. It was a f–king dominating performance. It was clear domination. One way traffic. Bryce just took him down and nearly submitted him a thousand times,” Michael Bisping said on his Believe You Me podcast.

“He was talking to me and he said that fight was s–t. I should have gotten a finish,” he added.

Michael Bisping explains why Bryce Mitchell won against Andre Fili

The co-main event of last week’s UFC action, Bryce Mitchell vs Andre Fili was expected to be high pace affair. The fight delivered on that aspect, and the two featherweights maintained the pace for full fifteen minutes.

Mitchell showed his wrestling prowess and took Fili down several times. While he couldn’t tons of damage while being on top, he did manage to control the pace of the fight.

“They both prepared a ton for this. It was a close fight. It was back-and-forth, but ultimately Bryce Mitchell just f–king took him down time and time again. Fili was really good defensively. But you don’t win a fight by being defensive. He was escaping mount, he was escaping side control. He was getting back to his feet. But he was just taken down again,” Bisping said.

Mitchell’s performance earned him a comparison with Khabib Nurmagomedov from Michael Bisping. He added, “This was a tremendous fight. He is like a 145-pound Khabib. That his high praise indeed.” 

Mitchell’s wrestling heavy style of fighting has been successful so far. His lone loss came against Brad Katona. However, since it was fought under The Ultimate Fighter, it does not show up in his official records. As Mitchell gets higher in the ranking, he will now have to prove his worth against tougher opponents in the future.

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