Middleweight contenders Michael Bisping and Chael Sonnen don’t have a lot of time to hype up their upcoming Fox bout on January 28, but Bisping isn’t letting the chance slip to get a few words in to his opponent.
In a recent interview with ChicagoNow.com, Bisping gives insight as to where he thinks he stands in the division and what he thinks about his opponent. Love him or hate him, he is here to stay and isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. With a 12-3 UFC record, he has had steady success throughout his career fighting in the Octagon.
“To be honest Chael Sonnen is a failed partisan and a failed politician,” said Bisping, who is currently riding a four-fight win streak. “He also failed as being a champion because he had many times in the past to achieve that and didn’t succeed. Honestly, I would have expected something a bit better from him than just calling me Pip. He could have done a hell of a lot better and frankly I’m disappointed. He failed as a politician and his first insult was also a failure.”
Sonnen recently came back from over a year-long break to defeat Brian Stann at UFC 136. That victory followed his unsuccessful title fight against reigning champion Anderson “The Spider” Silva in 2010.
Many regard Sonnen as the best trash-talker in the sport, but there hasn’t been too much coming from him in the lead-up to the fight.
“I don’t think the words will be going back and forth like other fights because of the short amount of time we have,” Bisping continued. “We were supposed to do The Ultimate Fighter together and that would have probably caused a nice stir of on-screen drama, but we still have a week. I’m sure we will talk some sh*t, but I’m looking forward to the press conference to see what he brings to the table.”
Originally, Bisping was supposed to fight jiu-jitsu ace Demian Maia while Sonnen was set to battle Mark Munoz on the same card. After Munoz was forced to pull out of his fight due to an injury, Bisping was set as the replacement.
Maia will now take on Chris Weidman. The main event will feature former UFC light heavyweight champion Rashad Evans, who is going up against Phil Davis.
“The thing is he thinks he’s going to win and I know that I’m going to win, which makes this fight that much more enjoyable,” said Bisping. “Sonnen is a world-class fighter and with a title shot on the line, what else would you want to see? This is a fight that you don’t want to miss and forget all the trash talk, just watch the fight next Saturday.”
Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com