Strikeforce middleweight contender Tim Kennedy has been busy over the past few days. Kennedy has officially called out the UFC’s Michael Bisping who made headlines with his antics against at UFC 127 where he landed an flagrant illegal knee to the jaw of Kennedy’s friend, Jorge Rivera.
Kennedy took to Twitter where he began a verbal lashing the U.K.’s most popular fighter on Tuesday, May 17.
@TimKennedyMMA: It is #disrespectful and unprofessional to illegally knee someone in the face while they have their knees on the ground @bisping
@TimKennedyMMA: #alliwantis little boys and girls to understand that cheating like @bisping doesn’t pay. Contrary to actual outcome of his last fight.
@TimKennedyMMA: @bisping I often re-watch fights in my division to try and learn something new. Takeaway from your fight was @Jorge_Conquistais awesome.
@TimKennedyMMA: #itshardwhen you want to fight the best but have to wait for them to step up. GIVE ME A FIGHT
Never one to be shy about returning trash talk, Bisping responded Wednesday to Kennedy’s tweets during an interview with MMA Fighting’s Ariel Helwani.
“It’s completely weird. He actually sent me a Tweet. It was directed to me, @bisping, ‘Bisping you’re an a**hole,’ or something, ‘You disrespected the sport and Jorge Rivera for the illegal knee.’ Normally, I never, ever respond to negative Tweets because, you know, all you’re doing is confirming to this person that you’ve actually read it and it may have gotten to you, so I never usually respond. But on this occasion, I thought, Here you’ve got another fellow professional of the sport that should know better, and he’s directing it at me. I’ve never met the guy, he doesn’t even fight in the UFC, and I just said, You know what, Tim Kennedy? Go f**k yourself. You’ve missed the train. That bandwagon left two months ago. I don’t know what his problem is. Again, he’s another one in a long list of people who’s trying to make a name off my back.”
Jorge Rivera and Kennedy’s Ranger Up business partner Nick Palmisciano spoke out in March about the UFC 127 situation, but according to the Ranger Up Facebook page, Tim Kennedy is prepared to let his fists do the talking.
”I will give my fight purse to charity if the UFC: Ultimate Fighting Championship lets me fight Bisping,” Kennedy stated.
Suggestions of a possible Bisping vs. Kennedy season of The Ultimate Fighter have been flooding in on Twitter, but nothing has been confirmed yet. Many other fighters have been calling out Bisping over the last few months, so Kennedy may have to get in line.
The biggest obstacle is likely the contract implications which are still somewhat of a mystery since Zuffa purchased Strikeforce. While fighters are technically under contract with Zuffa whether they are in the UFC or Strikeforce, UFC President Dana White has made it sound more complicated than that. No Strikeforce fighter has fought on a UFC card, or vice versa, since the merger.
But no other fighter has offered to give up his fight purse just for a chance to deliver another Dan Henderson-like knockout to the Brit, either.
The storylines in this potential fight are juicy and plentiful.
Let’s make this happen.
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