UFC 199: Five things we learnt as Michael Bisping fulfils his destiny and Brock Lesnar returns

UFC fans will be pinching themselves in total disbelief at the events that unfolded at UFC 199. Here are the five key talking points coming out of a night of madness.

British mixed martial arts history was made when Michael 'The Count' Bisping fulfilled what he said was his destiny and became the UFC middleweight champion.

Bisping came into the fight a 10/1 underdog but after just two minutes and fifty-three seconds of the first round he shocked the world when he achieved what many said was impossible when he knocked out Luke Rockhold.

No one deserves it more than the Mancunian and he will rightfully have the word champion imprinted on his resume that was already hall of fame destined.

As someone very heavily embedded in the sport I would love to say I saw this coming but this totally caught me off guard as it did countless other members of the media.

UFC President Dana White said week’s back he had one big announcement left for UFC 200 but as time went on it seemed increasingly unlikely it would be of the magnitude of a returning Lesnar.

The current WWE superstar drew the biggest UFC pay per view numbers of all time back at UFC 100 and it's likely his addition now to the UFC 200 will see that record smashed in July. Who will his opponent be? We will find out for sure this week but my money is on 'The Super Samoan' Mark Hunt.

While Lesnar returning was one that not many of us saw, it was widely known that the UFC were actively pursuing trying to get this rematch sorted for UFC 202.

It was speculated earlier in the week that talks had fallen through with the Diaz camp but it was known it was only a matter of time before the two parties agreed on the numbers and that the fight would eventually come together. Whether you love or hate the rematch, don't pretend for a second you won't be watching on August 20th.

Despite all the newsworthy items above it was with great sadness that a lot of the attention was grabbed by the news that three of my fellow media members who work for MMA Fighting were escorted from the building before the main event.

I'm led to believe this was done as a consequence of Ariel Helwani reporting both the news items concerning UFC 202 and the return of Brock Lesnar before they were officially announced by the UFC and thus the organisation believed it the right course of action to remove their credentials and escort them from the building before Bisping and Rockhold took to the octagon.

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While I respect the UFC's desire to control their announcements, I find it hard to swallow that a man and his associated outlet are being punished for him essentially doing his duty as a journalist.

Helwani is the number one MMA journalist in the game and his colleagues Esther and E. Casey Leydon are both leading photographers and videographers in their own right. I can only hope that cooler heads prevail and that a reconciliation is met in short time.

Finally, a word for Tom Breese who last night suffered the first loss of his professional career when he dropped a split decision to the American Sean Strickland. Breese, 24 years of age, is a welterweight with tons of potential and it will have been a big learning curve for the man from Birmingham.

In a brief exchange of text messages, Beese came across mature beyond his years and from what I can tell, he is already looking at his performance in a way that will help him make improvements in the future without being too hard on himself.

For a guy so young in the sport, his reaction to defeat tells me a lot about his character. He will one day rise to the top of his division and it sounds like he is willing to pay his dues to get there. After all, didn't Muhammad Ali prove that even the best of all time lose on the path to greatness.