UFC 199 is less than two weeks away, Michael Bisping will be facing the champion Luke Rockhold, in a rematch! BUT this time for the middleweight championship that seems to have fallen right in Bisping’s lap after a decade of fighting and competing at the highest level. Coming into the fight, he knows that he’s considered a massive underdog in this context but at the same time he is not worried about facing a man who he’s already fought, and been defeated by in the past.
Bisping said: “Look, I know I’m the underdog, Luke is a great fighter, he finishes guys and he’s finished me before, but nothing about Luke scares me, it really doesn’t. I know this guy, it’s not like I’m going into unknown waters. I know exactly what to expect. Apart from that one head kick that dropped me, none of his shots hurt me at all. I believe I’m faster than him and I have the ability to beat this guy, believe you me. We trained before and I made mincemeat out of him. When we fought, God bless him, he got the job done. But, every fight is different and I will approach this fight very differently. I made some mistakes in that last fight — I closed the distance then I went out of range. I was going in and out the whole time. This time, I am not going to play the long game, I can’t afford to do that. He’s going to have the better conditioning, let’s be honest. If it goes five rounds, I have to go slower, but I am going to look to take him out early by closing the distance, push him up against the fence and unleash what I got and I believe I can take him out.”
“The Count” knows perfectly well what to expect from Rockwell, who in recent interviews labeled Bisping as his “bitch”, clearly shows there is no love lost between the two fierce rivals at the 185lbs division. However the British UFC legend replied with his own punch and referred the best middleweight pound-for-pound fighter as a “smug assh*le.”
According to Bisping: “He’s a smug assh*le, let’s be honest. Listen, as I said, I want the shot, want to be the champion, but I have this inner fight in me, I pride myself in being a fighter, even in school. If there was a kid who was a couple of years older who thought he could beat me in a fight, I was like, ‘Cool, let’s go to the Castle Field and let’s figure it out. I’ve always been like that, it’s to my detriment, of course. Rockhold owns a victory over me, I want to rectify that. I want to set the record straight. Yes, I want to be the victor, world champion, but I also want to beat Luke Rockhold, it is personal to me. And when I look at him, I just want to knock that smug look off his face. I really do because you’ve never seen someone who walks around so smug. He’s just the biggest, smug prick you’ve seen in your life and I would love another opportunity to punch him in the face and be world champion at the same time.”
UFC 199 is schedules for June 4, 2016 at The Forum in Inglewood, California. Bisping is extremely confident about this rematch, so much that it seems he’s already won in his own mind, especially after his triumph over dangerous Anderson Silva on February 27, 2016. The fight is going to be the main event which will also feature another dream rubber match between longtime rivals Dominick Cruz and Urijah Faber for the UFC Bantamweight Championship. The fights will be shown live on pay-per-view and is expected to be a sold out arena.
