Following a third-round knockout loss to Yoel Romero at February’s UFC 221, former UFC middleweight champion Luke Rockhold revealed the UFC was targeting a trilogy match-up with Michael Bisping for his next fight on The MMA Hour yesterday. The booking makes a ton of sense considering the two have fought twice before with each man picking […]
The booking makes a ton of sense considering the two have fought twice before with each man picking up a victory, but according to “The Count,” who miraculously won the title by knocking Rockhold out cold at 2016’s UFC 199, told MMA Fighting that he hasn’t been offered any such bout.
According to him, Rockhold, who recently signed on as the face of Ralph Lauren’s new cologne, should stick to modeling after two knockout losses in his last three fights:
“I can categorically on the record state that I have not been offered a fight with (Rockhold) on July 7,” Bisping said. “He shouldn’t be so keen to get knocked out again anyway. Stick to modeling. Judging by his last three fights, MMA certainly doesn’t appear his thing anymore.”
Piercing words from Bisping, who has lost his last two fights by stoppage himself after Georges St-Pierre submitted him in November before Kelvin Gastelum brutally knocked him out only three weeks later when he filled in for Anderson Silva at UFC Shanghai.
It’s largely accepted that Bisping has one fight left in his decorated career, and a trilogy match-up with Rockhold would be quite the send-off for the British MMA great.
He’s been linked to retirement fights with Lyoto Machida, Rashad Evans, and Vitor Belfort, but none of them have come to fruition thus far.
Rockhold insists the UFC is pursuing the fight, but Bisping insists he’s heard nothing of it. Who do you believe?
While the sport of mixed martial arts would simply be nothing without the fights themselves, much of the love for the sport comes from the entertainment factor, which includes the hype, the build-up and the trash talk surrounding fights. Obviously not all fighters are trash talkers and not all fights include bad blood and back-and-forth
While the sport of mixed martial arts would simply be nothing without the fights themselves, much of the love for the sport comes from the entertainment factor, which includes the hype, the build-up and the trash talk surrounding fights. Obviously not all fighters are trash talkers and not all fights include bad blood and back-and-forth banter, but those that do are often quite memorable.
With that being said, let’s take a look at the UFC’s seven best trash talk battles:
7) Rashad Evans vs. Rampage Jackson
The UFC’s light heavyweight division appears to be rather scarce as of late, but it was once the sport’s premier weight class, and at one point, former champions “Suga” Rashad Evans and Quinton “Rampage” Jackson were at the forefront of the 205 pounders.
When the two met at May 2010’s UFC 114, neither held the UFC light heavyweight title, but they remained in the headlining spot as the trash talk between the two leading up to the bout was memorable to say the least.
Coaching opposite each other on The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) season 10 prior to the bout, the two had ample time to get under each other’s skin and they did just that. Both “Suga” and “Rampage” have always been outspoken individuals and they didn’t hold back, which resulted in one of the best trash talk battles we’ve ever seen.
With the Michael Bisping Sweepstakes in full swing to determine ‘The Count’s’ next opponent after he shockingly knocked out Luke Rockhold in the main event of June 4’s UFC 199, there is no bigger potential name on that list than longtime former welterweight champ Georges St. Pierre. Bisping has been angling for a rematch with
With the Michael Bisping Sweepstakes in full swing to determine ‘The Count’s’ next opponent after he shockingly knocked out Luke Rockhold in the main event of June 4’s UFC 199, there is no bigger potential name on that list than longtime former welterweight champ Georges St. Pierre.
Bisping has been angling for a rematch with 45-year-old legend Dan Henderson as his first title defense, but a much bigger prospect arose when “GSP” recently revealed that he would be willing to come out of retirement to fight Bisping now that he has the belt. Never one to miss out on an opportunity of such magnitude, “The Count” has already gotten the trash talk battle with St. Pierre started.
Speaking up during “The Countdown” podcast on SiriusXM (via MMA Fighting), the always brash and confident Brit had some extremely harsh criticism for St. Pierre, deeming him a “little b—-h” for leaving the sport behind amidst performance-enhancing drug concerns:
“I have nothing against Georges St-Pierre apart from the fact that he retired from the sport and was like, ‘No, I can’t do it because people are taking performance enhancing drugs.’ Well guess what, they were and they’re getting caught. But if you’re a man, if you’re a fighter, if you’re not a little bitch, you’ll still continue to take those chances and try to beat those people.
“You won’t run away to the shadows and disappear because you think you can’t compete. I’m not the coward. I’m not the coward that needs to takes steroids to compete with these guys. And I would have thought that Georges St-Pierre was man enough also to have the same attitude.”
The callout may seem a bit harsh, as it’s certainly hard to criticize an all-time great former champion who owns the record for most consecutive title defenses at his weight class, especially when you’re angling to face the No. 13-ranked contender who has auspiciously lost six of his last nine bouts.
Bisping has also backed it up by fighting – and losing to – several top fighters who have been linked to TRT and other PEDs throughout his 10-year UFC career. In fact, his ascent to a title shot was hampered by competitors associated with steroids in his losses to Henderson, Vitor Belfort, and Chael Sonnen, all which arguably stopped his run to a title shot.
And they may have kept him that way if not for Chris Weidman getting forced out of his UFC 199 rematch with Rockhold, opening the door for Bisping to shock the world in his only UFC title fight. Now the world is his oyster, so to say, and Bisping obviously is going to take full advantage. The MMA world is calling him out, and he’s basking in that rarified glow, with a potential fight against the arguable G.O.A.T. looming.
Bisping knows where the money is, and he understandably doesn’t think it lies with the elite-level talent populating the top of the middleweight ranks right now. “The Count” wants a big payday, so he not surprisingly called out St. Pierre for a fight after he finishes his long-standing feud with “Hendo”:
“Just for the record, I will call GSP out. I’ve got somebody in mind for my next fight and when that’s taken care of, if GSP’s man enough and he wants to step on the dotted line and fight, I will happily fight Georges St-Pierre.”
In the weeks since Michael Bisping won the UFC middleweight title from Luke Rockhold in shocking fashion at June 4’s UFC 199, there’ve been an windfall of potential challengers looking to get the next shot at ‘The Count’s’ throne. Those names include previously unforeseen competitors like Georges St. Pierre and Dan Henderson, but perhaps no legitimate
In the weeks since Michael Bisping won the UFC middleweight title from Luke Rockhold in shocking fashion at June 4’s UFC 199, there’ve been an windfall of potential challengers looking to get the next shot at ‘The Count’s’ throne.
Those names include previously unforeseen competitors like Georges St. Pierre and Dan Henderson, but perhaps no legitimate contender has been more vocal about a title shot than former champion Chris Weidman, who was originally scheduled to meet Rockhold in a UFC 199 rematch before a serious neck injury postponed that fight for now.
Bisping believes that Weidman, who lost the belt to Rockhold at last year’s UFC 194, should rematch Rockhold and the winner should face him. Weidman unsurprisingly thinks ‘The count’ is simply running scared and looking for an easier fight against ‘Hendo’ or ‘GSP.’ After the East Coast native voiced that thought online, Bisping fired back today (Sun., June 26, 2016) with the notion that Weidman should win a fight, as he seems to be suspiciously injured quite a bit in the post-USADA era:
@ChrisWeidmanUFC you never fail to make me smile. You’ll get yours, if and when you win a fight. Lots of injuries since usada though,Weird!????
So it seems the trash talk battle between Bisping, Weidman, and the rest of the suddenly wide-open UFC middleweight division is in full swing without an end in sight. With Weidman hopefully returning from his neck issue in time to fight at November’s monstrous UFC 205 debut in his home state of New York, a match-up with the British champion obviously makes sense from a pure marketing and magnitude standpoint.
Now it’s up to the UFC to find out just who wins the ‘Bisping Sweepstakes’ and actually gets the next crack at the belt.
Ever since Michael Bisping won the UFC middleweight championship with a shocking first-round knockout of heavily favored Luke Rockhold in the main event of June 4’s UFC 199 from Inglewood, California, there has been a seemingly never-ending stream of potential contenders for ‘The Count’s’ belt. Rockhold understandably wants his rematch, former champion Chris Weidman wants
Ever since Michael Bisping won the UFC middleweight championship with a shocking first-round knockout of heavily favored Luke Rockhold in the main event of June 4’s UFC 199 from Inglewood, California, there has been a seemingly never-ending stream of potential contenders for ‘The Count’s’ belt.
Rockhold understandably wants his rematch, former champion Chris Weidman wants the title shot he was supposed to get against Rockhold, and even Bisping’s old nemesis Dan Henderson has been thrown in the hat after ‘The Count’ said he wanted to finally settle their score from 2009’s UFC 100 (and ‘Hendo’ knocked out Hector Lombard in devastating fashion).
And then things were taken to an all-new – and unexpected – level earlier this week when all-time great former welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre revealed that he was willing to return for a title fight against Bisping if he could only get his contract situation with the UFC sorted. Weidman was quick to point that Bisping was perhaps taking ‘easy fights’ in order to hold on to his belt, but the fact remained that any fight with ‘GSP’ – even a title fight in a weight class he had never fought in – was big money bout that simply could not be passed up.
But there’s apparently yet another big name to throw his hat into the ‘Bisping Sweepstakes,’ as ‘The Count’ revealed on ‘The Countdown’ podcast that he had recently hung out with popular bad boy Nick Diaz, and the Stockton slugger levied a challenge for a bout, albeit with a somewhat strange stipulation:
“I’ll tell you something as well, another possible opponent that hasn’t been spoken about, and I was with him a couple of night ago in New York, I bumped into him in New York – Nick Diaz. He’s like, ‘Man, we should fight, we should fight.’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, I’m down to fight you no problem.’ And then he says, ‘But we have to do it at 178.’ I’m like, ‘What do you mean 178?’ He said we do a catch weight at 178. I’m like, ‘Let’s just do 185.’ He’s like, ‘Nope. 178.’ So anyway, I had a good time with Nick, by the way, we had a couple of drinks and hung out, he’s a good dude.”
Asked about the reasoning behind Diaz’ strange request, Bisping said he didn’t know and didn’t ask:
“For sure. I don’t know, he didn’t elaborate, and I’d had a couple of drinks, so I didn’t really think to ask the question. He definitely wanted to fight at 178, which is kind of a curious weight. But there you go, there’s another potential name.”
Perhaps Diaz is looking to get an advantage on the larger Bisping by forcing him to cut an unusually large amount of weight, but it is a curious suggestion given that ‘The Count’ is finally the UFC middleweight champion and that appears to be what everyone is chasing him for.
The older Diaz brother will be eligible to return from his marijuana-based NSAC suspension this August, and it’s no secret that some big fights will await him despite the fact that he hasn’t won a UFC fight since 2011 – yes, 2011. Just don’t count Michael Bisping as one of them, because with a full queue of competitors chomping at the bit to get a chance at his 185-pound title, it’s almost impossible to see ‘The Count’ even considering a drop down to 178 pounds.
Something special went down in the main of last night’s (Sat., June 4, 2016) UFC 199 from The Forum in Inglewood, California. It came in the form of one of, and quite possibly the, biggest comeuppances in UFC history when left-for-the-vultures underdog Michael Bisping knocked out previously touted middleweight champion Luke Rockhold with a pair of
Something special went down in the main of last night’s (Sat., June 4, 2016) UFC 199 from The Forum in Inglewood, California.
It came in the form of one of, and quite possibly the, biggest comeuppances in UFC history when left-for-the-vultures underdog Michael Bisping knocked out previously touted middleweight champion Luke Rockhold with a pair of perfectly-placed left hooks and a flurry of ground shots in the first round.
Bisping was a late replacement for former champ Chris Weidman, whom Rockhold demolished to steal the belt their UFC 194 match-up, and it was clear that the champion was giving “The Count” little respect after battering and submitting him in their first fight in late 2014.
The always brash and cocksure Rockhold had even gone as far as to predict a “one-of-a-kind” knockout of Bisping, while stating that the last man “The Count” defeated, all-time great former champion Anderson Silva “isn’t on his level” and “never was” during an interview on “UFC Tonight”:
“So Bisping was winning, he was dominating the fight, I respect him, but he’s about to find out that Anderson is not on my level. He never was. And this is a completely different fight. He doesn’t know the jump that I’ve made. It’s a completely different fight.”
It was obviously a bold, lofty claim that was rather unsubstantiated considering Rockhold had yet to defend his 185-pound title while Silva had of course racked up a record-setting 10 straight title defenses in the Octagon. Regardless of if the aging Silva is currently on Rockhold’s level or not, however, the main direct parallel that can be drawn from both former champions’ careers right now is that they undoubtedly lost their titles in shockingly similar fashion.
Silva was knocked out in the second round of his first match against Weidman at UFC 162, a game-changing knockout that appeared to usher in a new era of UFC middleweights, and a fight that “The Spider” still hasn’t fully recovered from – and most likely won’t.
After Rockhold battered and bloodied Weidman to win the belt in the co-main event of December 2015’s UFC 194, many, if not most, thought he would be the UFC’s true heir apparent to the middleweight throne after he finished five straight opponents in dominant fashion.
Obviously he has a much different fighting style opposed to the flashy Silva, but overall the belief was that Rockhold would roll through Bisping and pretty much anyone else at 185 pounds, at least for the time being. Yet like Silva, Rockhold also became of victim of his own cockiness, and while it didn’t manifest in the same form of Silva’s nonstop clowning that lead to his loss against Weidman, you could indeed tell he was fighting overconfidently with his hands at his sides and his chin high up in the air against Bisping.
Like “The Spider,” Rockhold got far too sure of himself, and he paid for it in a big way at UFC 199. He’s already claimed that he’l “kill” Bisping in their seemingly inevitable third match-up, but ultimately his air of invincibility was obviously thrown to the ground and stomped on in Los Angeles last night.
What’s next for Rockhold is unknown, but there’s still little doubt that given his overbearing size and athleticism coupled with his technically refined skillset, he can rebound and once again reach the top of the UFC mountaintop. However, last night showed that Silva was indeed on Rockhold’s level quite a bit more than he thought, and it wasn’t for the reason he might have hoped for.
