The Ultimate Fighter 14 will be the last season of the Ultimate Fighter to air on Spike TV but last doesn’t mean least. The show’s 14th season stars polar opposites and sworn enemies Michael Bisping and Jason “Mayhem” Miller and features one of MMA‘s most exciting weight classes, the featherweight division.
Today, a media conference call was held to promote the debut of the show which is only one week away.
As is usual with Miller and Bisping, there were plenty of fireworks and verbal jabbing going on throughout the duration of the conference and Bleacher Report was there to hear it all.
Right away, the call was heated.
“I’ll say this about Michael [Bisping],” said Miller, “He is a complex character, an individual that you could write many tomes of knowledge on.” Miller continued, “As the season went on, I hated his guts.”
Bisping didn’t hesitate, immediately replying “If you’re saying I’m a complex character, Jesus [expletive] Christ, you have about 15 personalities!” Bisping did not let up on his assault, saying, “I definitely hate him. I think most people around him find him very very annoying.”
When prodded a little further, Bisping had even more to say about his rival. “He’s idiotic,” Bisping bluntly stated. “You just put up with stupid [expletive] constantly…[Miller] tries to wind me up a few times on the show as you’ll see. They were all very very feeble attempts. His mouth is definitely bigger than his brain. He tried a few things, they were very childish and easy to overcome.”
Miller later spit back, “I think you’re way worse [of] an idiot than I am and I’m going to smash your face and choke you,” he said. Bisping immediately made a witty retort, dissing Miller for the recent controversy regarding Miller’s arrest for putting his sister in a headlock, “Nice to see you’ve been warming up on your sister!”
Bisping’s onslaught continued later in the conference. “This is a big opportunity for Jason. He went from fighting on the undercard to fighting in a main event against me.”
Miller was appreciative of the opportunity and expressed (faux) regret at having to fight Bisping, saying “I have to take my hat off to him, but that being said, I cannot do anything other than beat [Bisping] up, so I apologize. Thanks for the opportunity, I will say that.”
Never one to take things lying down, Bisping fired back with a promise, “It’s quite alright. I’ll be sending you back onto the undercard real soon. Enjoy those quiet little crowds.”
There were other highlights aside from trash talk (which was certainly plentiful). One such moment was when Bleacher Report’s own Josh Carey asked Bisping about his training camp.
Interestingly, the Brit’s camp is currently in California. “As if right now I’m living in California…the plan is do a month in California and a month somewhere else,” Bisping said.
However, this doesn’t mean he’s left England’s prestigious Wolfslair gym. “I’m still very much part of the Wolfslair. The Wolfslair is kind of an international fight gym now. Obviously “Rampage” [Quinton Jackson] is out of the [United] States, Cheick Kongo is out of the [United] States.”
Miller, too, had his non-controversial moments, such as when he shared what it was like to coach. He said “Coaching reinvigorated my passion, it got me amped to train…I had one priority going into the show: to make sure I give my full attention to coaching these guys.”
At the end of the day, while both men may not like each other, there was one very important thing they could agree on: this upcoming season was going to be good.
“This will be huge for TUF franchise, it will be the best season they’ve ever done,” said Miller. “We didn’t have one lackluster fight the entire season…they were worth the damn price of a DVD box set”
Bisping concurred, saying something that no one thought would ever leave the Brit’s mouth, “[Miller] is completely right.”
The Ultimate Fighter season 14 debuts one week from today, on September 21st on Spike TV. If the media conference call is any indication of what will happen, the season will be the most amazing in the show’s history.
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