In this installment of the MMA News Archives, we revisit the post-fight turmoil between Michael Bisping and Luke Rockhold after UFC 199. At UFC 199, Michael Bisping completed one of the biggest upsets in the promotion’s history when he defeated Luke Rockhold for the middleweight championship. Bisping entered the fight as a +525 underdog but…
In this installment of the MMA News Archives, we revisit the post-fight turmoil between Michael Bisping and Luke Rockhold after UFC 199.
At UFC 199, Michael Bisping completed one of the biggest upsets in the promotion’s history when he defeated Luke Rockhold for the middleweight championship. Bisping entered the fight as a +525 underdog but shocked the world with a KO victory in the very first round.
Prior to the fight, there was a lot of trash talk between the two middleweights. You can catch some of the heat that was exchanged below.
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Although there wasn’t an initial thaw between Rockhold and Bisping, MMA News has been on top of the evolution of the relationship between the two former rivals.
However, as you will learn from the below archived article published on this day six years ago, they were a long ways apart from such a friendship immediately after UFC 199.
On This Day Six Years Ago…
[ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED JUNE 5, 2016, 2:56 PM]
Headline: Video: Bisping, Rockhold Have To Be Separated After UFC 199 Post-Fight Press Conference
Author: Matt Boone
On late Saturday evening, well after Michael Bisping shocked the world by knocking out Luke Rockhold in the UFC 199 main event to become the new UFC Middleweight Champion, the seeds were planted for a rubber match between the two.
After a heated post-fight press conference where Bisping and Rockhold went back-and-forth with vicious verbal exchanges on multiple occasions, the two had to be physically separated right after the press conference wrapped.
Bisping and Rockhold still going at it after the post fight press conference. pic.twitter.com/Ojiiwlo9O1
In the video embedded above, you can see the footage, which shows Bisping trying to shake Rockhold’s hand, but Rockhold refusing, leading to another heated exchange that resulted in UFC officials needing to separate the two.
For detailed UFC 199: Rockhold vs. Bisping 2 results, click here. To watch the entire UFC 199 post-fight press conference, click here.
Well, UFC 199, which went down last night live on pay-per-view (PPV) from The Forum in Inglewood, California, provided the mixed martial arts (MMA) community with one of the craziest nights in recent memory. Multiple story lines prevailed, but perhaps none more memorable than the one that emerged from the main event. 25 Octagon fights
Well, UFC 199, which went down last night live on pay-per-view (PPV) from The Forum in Inglewood, California, provided the mixed martial arts (MMA) community with one of the craziest nights in recent memory.
Multiple story lines prevailed, but perhaps none more memorable than the one that emerged from the main event.
25 Octagon fights and a decade into his storied UFC career, Michael “The Count” Bisping has finally reached the pinnacle.
Accepting a bout with Luke Rockhold on just over two weeks’ notice, many had Bisping was a huge +600 underdog heading into the night.
After all, Rockhold did dismantle the British veteran in November 2014, and Bisping came into that bout with a full camp.
However, as we are so often reminded, the fight game is unpredictable.
Bisping came out firing in the first round, putting Rockhold away with strikes early on to become the undisputed middleweight champion of the world.
What a rollercoaster ride it has been for “The Count”, and now at age 37, he’s finally on top.
Let’s take a look at four potential fights for Bisping to take next:
If Michael Bisping’s life were a movie, it’s safe to say the credits would’ve rolled after UFC 199.
Bisping penned the closest thing imaginable to a storybook ending for his decade-long UFC career on Saturday, knocking out Luke R…
If Michael Bisping’s life were a movie, it’s safe to say the credits would’ve rolled after UFC 199.
Bisping penned the closest thing imaginable to a storybook ending for his decade-long UFC career on Saturday, knocking out Luke Rockhold in the first round to capture the middleweight title.
The result shocked the MMA world, which cheered Bisping’s late addition to this fight on roughly two weeks’ notice after Chris Weidman fell out with an injury but didn’t give him a real chance to win.
It shocked the heavily favored Rockhold, who rolled in on a five-fight win streak that included his own stoppage win over Bisping in November 2014.
From the looks of it, it shocked Bisping a little bit, too.
The victory made him the first British fighter to capture UFC gold. That seemed fitting, considering how important he had been to the company’s early European expansion efforts after winning Season 3 of The Ultimate Fighter in 2006.
The fact that he finally did it, at 37 years old, with no training camp to speak of and fighting essentially with one eye after suffering a detached retina in 2013 made the victory all the more awe-inspiring.
“I’m an average guy—more than average,” Bisping told UFC color commentator Joe Rogan in the cage after the fight. “This was my dream, nobody was taking this away from me. Two weeks’ notice? Two days, two hours, two minutes? I’ll fight anyone, anywhere.”
But Bisping’s life isn’t a movie, of course—and the picture didn’t fade to black as UFC matchmaker Sean Shelby wrapped the title around his waist. The credits didn’t roll as he kissed his wife and thanked the fans for their support.
Immediately following one of the biggest upsets in UFC history, he merely had to go on with his life, and now he’ll have to carry the title forward in the days and weeks to come.
And that’s where Bisping’s story gets really interesting, because this isn’t a man who fits neatly into the role of loveable underdog who shocks the world.
As with all things involving the bombastic Brit, it’s going to be a lot more complicated than that.
After dropping Rockhold twice with left hooks and then using a barrage of strikes to force a referee stoppage late in the first round, Bisping hopped on top of the Octagon fence to flex and soak up cheers from the astonished Los Angeles crowd.
In classic Bisping fashion, he also turned to point and shout obscenities at Rockhold, perhaps before the former champion had even gotten up off the mat.
An hour or so later, Bisping strutted fashionably late into the post-fight press conference—presumably after receiving medical attention—hauling his newly won UFC hardware and sipping a beer.
He gloated and taunted Rockhold, waving the title belt from the opposite side of the UFC’s podium so the American could get a good look at exactly what he’d lost. At times, Bisping turned serious, apologizing for “acting silly” and saying he respected Rockhold before immediately segueing back into insults and name-calling.
It was not classy. It was the opposite of classy. Frankly, it was exactly the sort of performance that had earned Bisping his longstanding reputation as one of the Octagon’s most disliked fighters (warning: video contains NSFW language):
For years after capturing the TUF 3 crown, Bisping was regarded as a churlish figure whose lofty position inside the promotion—along with his cocky swagger and continuous trash talk—made him a favorite target of his peers.
On the positive end of things, the man’s big mouth meant he was adept at selling a fight with just about anyone on the UFC’s roster. Bisping was always more than happy to transform an otherwise unremarkable pairing into a blood feud.
It just so happened he came out of those rivalries as the winner more often than not, too, amassing a 19-7 record in the UFC (29-7 overall).
He was also frequently branded as overrated, the teacher’s pet, and his antics seemingly made him unpopular among fellow fighters and fans outside his native England.
In recent years, however, Bisping had turned the tide of public opinion in his favor. He had stuck around the Octagon so long and proved himself such a tough customer that a large percentage of fans were finally granting him a begrudging respect.
We began to see his brash attitude for what it was—just an effective marketing tool. We learned he was a devoted family man and a capable fight analyst for Fox Sports.
Perhaps, we thought, Bisping was guilty of little more than understanding the business and promotional end of the fight game long before the rest of us got hip to it.
In the wake of that initial loss to Rockhold, he won three straight fights, including a hard-fought unanimous decision over the declining Anderson Silva in February. Since he was long regarded as one of the best UFC fighters never to get a shot at the title, it was a genuine feel-good moment when he was tabbed as the late assignment to fight Rockhold on Saturday.
Then Bisping became the world champion by crafting an upset that will live in UFC history, alongside Matt Serra’s 2007 win over Georges St-Pierre and Holly Holm’s KO of Ronda Rousey in 2015.
You couldn’t help but cheer for that, as noted by Bleacher Report’s Mike Chiappetta:
But by the time he arrived at the press conference with his beer bottle and Cheshire cat’s grin, it was as though his public image had taken an abrupt step backward.
“I believe I am the champion of the world, people,” Bisping crowed as he took his seat. “I hate to say, ‘I told you so.’ … Some say revenge is sweet. I disagree, I think it’s better than sweet.”
“Oh, right,” we all thought. This is why we always hated this guy.
Another complicating factor for Bisping—again, because his story doesn’t end here—is that now he’ll have to defend the UFC title. Once everyone is healthy, there will be a veritable murderers’ row lining up for the first shot at the underdog champion.
Weidman’s neck surgery may delay his return, but he’s expected to be back at 100 percent before the end of the year. JacareSouzajust had knee surgery but was set to be the consensus No. 1 contender for the Weidman-Rockhold winner before that fight fell apart.
Then there’s Rockhold himself, who is no less deserving of an immediate rematch than any of the other UFC champs who have lost their titles under surprising circumstances lately.
Much of the UFC 199 post-fight presser, in fact, felt like a preamble to Rockhold vs. Bisping III.
“I guess destiny is real,” Rockhold said, giving a nod to Bisping’s predictions that he would win this fight and become champion. “But it’s not going to last very long.”
The two men jawed throughout the news conference. In fairness, it wasn’t one-sided, either. Rockhold said just as many disparaging things about Bisping as Bisping said about him. For a while it seemed like pretty run-of-the-mill press conference beefing.
The situation continued to escalate after the event ended, however. In a video posted online by ESPN’s ArashMarkazi, Bisping can be heard using a homophobic slur to refer to Rockhold (warning: NSFW language):
As reported by the Guardian, Bisping had made a practice of using that kind of hateful language in the past. It had been a while since we’d heard it from him, but here it was rearing its head again.
The total package made his Cinderella victory feel slightly less worthy of our wonder and admiration.
It turns out he may really be the guy we thought he was for so many years.
The UFC middleweight division obviously got quite the shakeup when monstrous underdog Michael Bisping knocked out -1000 favorite Luke Rockhold (highlights here) in the main event of last night’s (Sat., June 4, 2016) UFC 199 from The Forum in Inglewood, California. Bisping said that he was understandably going to enjoy the belt that had taken him
The UFC middleweight division obviously got quite the shakeup when monstrous underdog Michael Bisping knocked out -1000 favorite Luke Rockhold (highlights here) in the main event of last night’s (Sat., June 4, 2016) UFC 199 from The Forum in Inglewood, California.
Bisping said that he was understandably going to enjoy the belt that had taken him 10 years to finally get around his waist, but also revealed that he would perhaps ‘knock out’ a few other challengers before granting a trilogy match to Rockhold, who previously submitted him in late 2014.
Rockhold was originally supposed to face former champion Chris Weidman in a rematch of their UFC 194 bout, but a significant neck injury to Weidman opened up an opportunity for Bisping to win the biggest fight of his career. A fight against top contender Ronaldo ‘Jacare’ Souza would obviously make sense for Bisping, but a bout with Weidman, who is hopefully targeting a return at November’s UFC 205 in his home state of New York, might be a bout that’s too big to pass up.
And as expected, Weidman had some conflicting opinions about the fight tonight. First, he apologized for everyone for supposedly ‘creating’ the ‘cocky bastard’ that Rockhold had become:
I created this cocky bastard. All my fault. Sorry to everyone who has to see this. It will be short lived.
Finally, Weidman came to his senses and congratulated Bisping in a bit of a back-handed way, adding that “The Count” would “hand him” his former title back at Madison Square Garden in November:
Mann… Congrats to Bisping. I’ll be waiting in MSG for you to hand me over that belt. Good job.
The dust had hardly settled on Michael Bisping’s amazing knockout win over heavily favored former champion Luke Rockhold in the main event of last night’s (Sat., June 4, 2016) UFC 199 from The Forum in Inglewood, California, and the fighters had already begun setting the stage for a trilogy match. Following a heated back-and-forth at the UFC
The dust had hardly settled on Michael Bisping’s amazing knockout win over heavily favored former champion Luke Rockhold in the main event of last night’s (Sat., June 4, 2016) UFC 199 from The Forum in Inglewood, California, and the fighters had already begun setting the stage for a trilogy match.
Following a heated back-and-forth at the UFC 199 post-fight press conference that featured Rockhold repeatedly calling Bisping “a d***” as “The Count” predictably needled him about being knocked out, the bitter rivalry didn’t appear to be ending anytime soon. Check out the video of the brutal smack talk courtesy of MMA H.E.A.T. right here:
When Bisping apparently tried to shake Rockhold’s hand after the presser, a scuffle erupted where both world-class middleweights had to be separated. Watch it courtesy of MMA Junkie right here:
What a night of fights. UFC 199 emanated tonight (June 4, 2016) from The Forum in Inglewood, CA, and may go down as the best event of the year. The main event saw the unthinkable happen. Most people predicted a short fight, but not in the way that actually transpired. Michael Bisping spoiled Luke Rockhold’s
UFC 199 emanated tonight (June 4, 2016) from The Forum in Inglewood, CA, and may go down as the best event of the year.
The main event saw the unthinkable happen. Most people predicted a short fight, but not in the way that actually transpired.
Michael Bisping spoiled Luke Rockhold’s first title defense with a left hook he never saw coming. Rocked and floored by the punch, Rockhold was met with another strike as he tried to return to his feet. Follow up punches brought a swift end to the night, and saw Bisping crowned as one of the most unlikely champion’s in UFC history.
On a night that repeatedly broke MMA Twitter, “The Count” broke it the hardest with the defining performance of his career.
Meanwhile, the co-headliner also saw a significant underdog seeking redemption against the champion. But it was not to be.
Bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz retained his strap for the first time in his second stint as the 135 pound ruler, besting Faber for the second time in a title defense. He now also owns the lead in their trilogy with a 2-1 lead after sweeping the scorecards for a unanimous decision.
See the reaction to the spectacular title fights below:
Yall wanna see a dead body? Well, you will after Rockhold annihilates Bisping. This is gonna be ugly. #UFC199
— MMA History Today (@MMAHistoryToday) June 5, 2016
While the night was headlined by title fights at 135 and 185 pounds, there were several other happenings that sent the Twitterverse into a frenzy. Check them out on the next page.
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