After Calling Out GSP & Nick Diaz, Michael Bisping Won’t Be Fighting Soon

In the weeks after his close decision win over Dan Henderson at October 4’s UFC 204, UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping has been busy calling out two big names in Georges St-Pierre and Nick Diaz for the feature bout of December 10’s UFC 206 from Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Neither fight seemed to materialize, yet “The Count” was tabbed to talked about as a replacement for Luke Rockhold against Jacare Souza in the main event of November’s UFC Fight Night 101 from Melbourne, Australia.

However, while serving as host of “UFC Tonight” on FOX Sports 1, he revealed that wouldn’t be fighting any of those big names, as he’s healing from a broken orbital suffered against Henderson and also has to get treatment on his knee:

“As you all know, I fought Dan Henderson very recently. I’ve got a busted orbital, I’m getting injections in my knee.”

That seems like a peculiar set of circumstances considering he was calling out GSP and Diaz so recently, but Bisping clarified that he miraculously could have recovered to take on either of those two superstars because of the payday involved, something that was absent from the bout with Jacare:

“Now I know what everyone at home is going to say: ‘Didn’t you call out GSP a couple weeks ago? Yes, I did, but really, think about this, that was a massive payday, roughly $3-4 million I would have earned from that fight. Against Jacare, I’m going to get around about a quarter.”

So the MMA world – in addition to Jacare’s manager – thinks Bisping is somehow ducking the lethal submission artist, but the British titleholder insists that is not what he’s doing and something he’s never done. In his opinion, he’s going to face the winner of Chris Weidman vs. Yoel Romero at UFC 205 or Jacare:

“I’m assuming they’re saying that I’m ducking Jacare,” Bisping said. “I’ve never ducked anybody in my life. … Next week, Yoel and Weidman are fighting. Whoever wins, either that guy, or Jacare, will be my next fight, make no mistake. But I’m not doing it in a few weeks.”

While it’s no surprise Bisping is unable to fight Souza in November, it is a curious scenario that he could seemingly fight only three weeks later if he does have a serious injury, especially considering his history of eye issues. Bisping is looking for the big payday, and unfortunately for the Fighter of the Year candidate (whether you like it or not), that’s something he’s been accused of doing rather than facing the best 185-pound martial artists in the UFC.

The only thing he can do to silence those haters is face and defeat Jacare, Weidman, or Romero in his next title fight.