Michael Bisping and the long road to a UFC title shot

It's hard to picture any combat sports athlete walking a more winding path to a world title opportunity than Michael Bisping.

Nearly a decade into his UFC career, it looked like the ship had sailed on Bisping's chances to fight for the gold. He'd earned the undesirable reputation of a fighter good enough to hang with the best in the sport, without being considered one of the best in the sport himself.

Then it happened.

First, a momentous decision win over former middleweight kingpin Anderson Silva in February. Next, a UFC 199 main event thrown into chaos when No. 1 contender Chris Weidman is forced out with an injury. Lastly, the news that presumptive replacement Ronaldo Souza is set to undergo knee surgery that will keep him out of action for months.

Suddenly, the math favored Bisping. "The Count" earned the coveted replacement spot opposite Luke Rockhold at UFC 199 on June 4, and he now has a chance to become a UFC champion in his 26th trip to the Octagon.

Related: Bisping replaces Weidman in UFC 199 title fight with Rockhold

To understand just how unlikely this sequence of events is, you have to look at where Bisping came from.

He won the third season of "The Ultimate Fighter" as a light heavyweight, back when that achievement still meant something.

His first loss came when he dropped a close split decision to future champion Rashad Evans. Bisping dropped down to the middleweight division after that and he rattled off three straight wins against decent competition.

It wasn't enough to satisfy his critics, who accused the UFC of shielding their British star from the toughest middleweights in an effort to preserve his drawing power overseas.

There would be no such protection when Bisping found himself in a title eliminator against hard-hitting Dan Henderson. All he had to do was win and he'd book his ticket to a main event slot against then-champion Silva.

Bisping did not win:

That chin-atomizing knockout punch would be replayed endlessly, sure to be brought up if anyone dared to suggest that Bisping could be a champion. It didn't help that in the following years he always seemed to fall short against the division's most famous names.

Wanderlei Silva, Chael Sonnen, Vitor Belfort, Tim Kennedy, and the current champion Rockhold all put a stop to Bisping's championship hopes. He could talk a good game, but without the results to back it up, he was no more than a chatty gatekeeper in the eyes of the UFC and its fans.

When he beat Silva at UFC Fight Night 84, more people were talking about the flying knee that nearly knocked him out in the third round than the gutsy, 25-minute performance he put on to take a judges' decision.

Post-fight, Bisping called for a title shot as he had so many times in the past. And it would have remained just talk were it not for a stunning confluence of events that required someone to face Rockhold and save the main event of UFC 199.

The timing was right for the ultimate company man to have his moment.

When these long-term goals come to fruition, it's not uncommon for athletes to toss around words like "fate" and "destiny"; it might not be Bisping's destiny to be a UFC champion, but it would be foolish to dismiss the concept completely when explaining how he managed to get a title shot at all.