It seems Jon Jones was steaming over more than just one interview ahead of UFC 232.
Michael Bisping is all about asking the tough questions, Believe You Me, but Jon Jones was having none of it. The former UFC middleweight champion apparently struck a nerve with Jones during a pre-fight interview ahead of UFC 232 for UFC Tonight.
“I don’t care about asking difficult questions and I asked Jon Jones some questions, which apparently he didn’t like,” Bisping said on his podcast (transcribed by MMA Fighting).
The team over at FOX spoke again with Jones following his win over Alexander Gustafsson and Jones still had a bone to pick with Bisping. “We interviewed him again and when we were on commercial break he was talking f—king sh-t,” he revealed on his podcast. “To whoever the powers may be were at FOX, he [said], ‘Is that motherf—ker Michael Bisping going to be asking questions again, with his f—king dumb sh-t,’ and all this and I was like, ‘Ohhh yeah.’”
Jones recently apologized to Swedish reporter Izabelle Kostic for lashing out at her at the UFC 232 pre-fight press conference. Bisping was not so lucky.
“Here’s what we never spoke about: he tested positive in August, he tested positive in September and he tested positive in December,” the Englishman explained. “Now they’re saying that they are metabolites and they’re saying the presence of Turinabol can stay in his body for a long time. So, if you put that all together, he’s probably going to test positive after fight.”
Bisping believes Gustafsson has a case to have his loss to Jones overturned to a no contest: “So, I said, ‘Jon, has there been any discussion as to what happens if you test positive after the fight?’ Because I’ll tell you what, if I’m Alexander Gustafsson and you stopped me in the third round, but the motherf—ker tests positive — and I don’t care how many small pinches of salt it is in an Olympic sized swimming pool — I want that overturned to a f—king no contest because you’ve tested positive after the fact.”
The newly-minted UFC light heavyweight champion brushed the question off, according to Bisping. “He said, ‘Well, you know, I’m just looking forward to this fight, this fight’s going to be great and blah blah blah—he just totally ignored the question,” the Believe You Me host continued. “So then I went back at him again, I slightly reworded [the question] and once again he ignored it. You could see he wasn’t happy.”
Bisping, 39, insisted he was only doing his job and bears no ill will towards Jones, 31. “I wasn’t trying to be a dick with Jon. I love watching Jon Jones fight; he’s incredible,” Bisping praised. “I’ve been around him enough during my fight career and Jon’s always been cool with me. I’ve always liked the guy, but being in that position that we’re in, we’ve got to ask those f—king questions.”