The ongoing feud between Urijah Faber and Michael Bisping has escalated into a potential exhibition bout.
Bisping is still fuming over a comment made in a video blog entry for UFC 152 featuring Faber and his teammate Joseph Benavidez.
“They tweet out this video, and Urijah Faber, or ‘Urijah Favor’ as I call him—because I mean, really, how many title shots can one guy get?—says to [Benavidez], look at this, that’s Bisping on [TV]. Do you think you can hit harder than Bisping? Joseph Benavidez says, ‘Yeah, I definitely hit harder than Bisping,'” Bisping told Los Angeles reporters at Morton’s The Steakhouse.
“It really, I mean, he’s the size of my leg. If you’re going to talk [expletive] about me and the UFC is going to tweet it out, I’m going to address that. UFC has 776,000 followers, which I know because I looked it up. So I put, listen, Urijah Favor, Joseph Benavidez, and the rest of the munchkin crew, don’t talk [expletive] just because you’re stuck in the bodies of pre-pubescent boys.”
The feud apparently started after Bisping insinuated that his UFC 152 bout with Brian Stann was the main event, as opposed to the flyweight championship bout between Benavidez and Demetrious Johnson.
Bisping says he meant no disrespect, and he only made that comment to hype his own fight. He believes a nerve was struck with Faber and Benavidez, which has prompted them to take shots at him in the media.
Faber recently served as a commentator for the XFC 20 event held in Knoxville, Tennessee.
After the event, MMA: Inside the Cage caught up with the former WEC champion to get his thoughts on the escalating feud with Bisping.
“It’s all in good fun. I actually spent some time with him in Afghanistan, and the true thing about Bisping – he loves to joke around, but he cannot take a joke. I was giving him some crap about that. I remember one of the military ladies came up and said something was about a foot long, and I said (holding up his fingers an inch apart) ‘Well, Bisping said this is about six inches,’ and he frigging lost it. His face got all red, he was spitting around for a comeback.”
While Faber claims the jokes are in good fun, he also makes it clear that he isn’t afraid of Bisping. He even sizes the Brit up for a possible MMA bout.
Initially, a bout pitting a middleweight against a featherweight seems like a circus act, but Faber truly believes he holds some advantages over Bisping.
Faber continues:
“You know, the bottom line is, I’ve got respect for Bisping. I think he’s a cool enough guy, but I’d get in there and scrap with him.
I think it’d go well. I think I’d have an advantage on the ground. I wouldn’t want to take a clean punch from the guy because he’s so much bigger, but you know, for those who know martial arts, getting hit on the button is the scary thing, and I think he’d have trouble hitting me.
Although I have a great big chin here, I think he’d have trouble getting to it. So it’d be an interesting fight. I would do it. Let’s do it Bisping. Let’s do it on the internet. We can do some sparring, or we’ll charge people and have an exhibition bout.”
It didn’t take Bisping long to respond.
On Thursday, “The Count” laughed at Faber’s open-weight challenge in a post on Twitter. He admits that he didn’t know Faber was actually serious about fighting him.
“HAHAHHAHAA I JUST LAUGHED SO HARD. I didn’t know faber was serious. Jesus, all those failed title fights must of messed his brain up,” Bisping posted.
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