Chris Weidman: I Can’t Take Michael Bisping Seriously
UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping has received quite a bit of criticism from his fellow 185 pounders.
Since winning the title with a shocking knockout of Luke Rockhold in June 2016, Bisping has only defended it once, scoring a decision win over Dan Henderson, who was ranked outside of the top 10 at the time, last October.
Now, “The Count” will take on another fighter ranked outside of the top 10. In fact, he’ll take on a fighter who has never competed at middleweight, as he’s set to meet former longtime welterweight king Georges St. Pierre at UFC 217 on Nov. 4 in New York City.
One middleweight contender who has gone back-and-forth with Bisping in the media is Chris Weidman, and the ex-champion recently discussed the rivalry, while adding in the fact that he simply can’t take the Brit seriously:
“I’m sure it will be,” Weidman told Submission Radio when asked if running into the champion would be ‘weird.’ “I don’t care. I really can’t get mad at anything Bisping says and I can’t take him seriously. I mean, listen, if the guy comes in my face and he’s screaming, we’re probably gonna end up fighting. But I don’t think – if he really wants to do that type of thing, he’s looking for a fight, I mean, if he comes in my face and creates a problem, there’s going to be a problem, but I’m not looking for a problem with the guy. I don’t really care.”
As far as Bisping’s fight with St. Pierre goes, Weidman, like many other middleweights, feels as if it’s a fight that is holding up the division:
“It’s a crazy thing. I feel this whole thing is probably going to hold up the division for a long time if it works out that way. The way it looks like right now and the possibilities of how long it could take before opportunities for the guys to fight for the belt, it looks a little crazy right now. So hopefully things change a little bit and hopefully they will, cause I know Whittaker’s injured pretty long, I know he has a bad knee surgery, so I don’t know when he’s going to be back.
“And then you got GSP and Bisping. I mean, GSP hasn’t fought in four years and he’s been out for a while, so who knows until when he’d be ready if he was to win to fight again. And then you have Bisping, who also really hasn’t fought too much since he’s had the belt, you know? So I don’t know when even they would fight Whittaker, and then the winner of that, when are you actually gonna fight them, barring injury or not. So it’s a weird weight class right now, so I really don’t know. This whole thing is out of my control, so I just gotta sit back and worry about myself and see what happens.”
What do you make of Weidman’s comments?
