Michael Bisping is not oblivious to the fact that he is an enormous underdog heading into his short-notice rematch with UFC Middleweight Champion Luke Rockhold at UFC 199 next month, in fact, he’s well-aware of that fact heading into their second fight.
“Look, I know I’m the underdog, Luke is a great fighter, he finishes guys and he’s finished me before,” Bisping said on Monday’s edition of “The MMA Hour” at MMAFighting.com. “But, nothing about Luke scares me, it really doesn’t. I know this guy, it’s not like I’m going into unknown waters. I know exactly what to expect. Apart from that one head kick that dropped me, none of his shots hurt me at all. I believe I’m faster than him and I have the ability to beat this guy, believe you me. We trained before and I made mince meat out of him. When we fought, God bless him, he got the job done. But, every fight is different and I will approach this fight very differently. I made some mistakes in that last fight — I closed the distance then I went out of range. I was going in and out the whole time. This time, I am not going to play the long game, I can’t afford to do that. He’s going to have the better conditioning, let’s be honest. If it goes five rounds, I have to go slower, but I am going to look to take him out early by closing the distance, push him up against the fence and unleash what I got and I believe I can take him out.”
Heading into their second Octagon meeting, “The Count,” who was told it was his “destiny” to be Rockhold’s “bitch” during a recent interview with the champ, has no love-lost for the reigning 185-pound king. As he points out, he’s very much looking forward to punching Rockhold, who he referred to as a “smug assh*le.”
“He’s a smug assh*le, let’s be honest,” said Bisping. “Listen, as I said, I want the shot, want to be the champion, but I have this this inner fight in me, I pride myself in being a fighter, even in school. If there was a kid who was a couple of years older who thought he could beat me in a fight, I was like, ‘Cool, let’s go to the Castle Field and let’s figure it out. I’ve always been like that, it’s to my detriment, of course. Rockhold owns a victory over me, I want to rectify that. I want to set the record straight. Yes, I want to be the victor, world champion, but I also want to beat Luke Rockhold, it is personal to me. And when I look at him, I just want to knock that smug look off his face. I really do because you’ve never seen someone who walks around so smug. He’s just the biggest, smug prick you’ve seen in your life and I would love another opportunity to punch him in the face and be world champion at the same time.”
UFC 199: Rockhold vs. Bisping II is scheduled for Saturday, June 4, 2016 at The Forum in Inglewood, California. Featuring a co-main event of Dominick Cruz vs. Urijah Faber for the UFC Bantamweight Championship, UFC 199 will air live on pay-per-view.
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