Michael Bisping: I’m A Fighter, Luke Rockhold’s An Athlete

UFC middleweight champion Luke Rockhold is set to make his first career title defense tomorrow night against longtime UFC veteran Michael Bisping, in the main event of UFC 199 in Inglewood, California.

The two world-class middleweights weighed in Friday evening followed by an intense stare-down exchanged between the two men, in which UFC President Dana White desperately attempted to keep the two separated.

Following the heated exchange, both men joined Fox Sports 1 (FS1) to make some final statements before taking the Octagon against one another tomorrow night.

Bisping, who is the No. 4-ranked middleweight in the world, described the intense stare-down with Rockhold:

“He doesn’t like me, I don’t like him,” Bisping said. “All I was trying to do was, you know, talk a little trash. Dana, I think he was hyper-sensitive.

He wouldn’t let me get near him. Dana was pushing me away. I’m like, ‘Dana, relax.’ He goes, don’t touch him! Don’t touch him!

I’m not going to touch him. I’m not here to fight. I’m a professional, I’m going to fight tomorrow. Don’t you worry.”

‘The Count’ also believes that what sets him apart from the rest of the UFC’s world-class roster, is the fact that he is a ‘real fighter’:

“I’ve never turned down a fight in my life,” Bisping said. “There’s not a single thing in this world that I do better than fighting, and since I was eight years old, I’ve always been a fighter.

I really have. This is who I am as a person. I don’t need eight weeks. I think I can beat anybody in the world right now, whether it’s at the end of a training camp or not, and that’s what you have to be.

Luke Rockhold isn’t the same person. He’s not cut from the same cloth as me. He’s a pretender. He’s a poser. A lot of the UFC roster are.

They’re all posers. I’m a real fighter. They’re ‘athletes.’ I ain’t an athlete. I’m a fighter, and you’re going to see that tomorrow night.”

Rockhold then joined the FS1 crew stating that while he understands what Bisping is capable of, he still expects to walk away Saturday night with the gold strapped around his waist:

“I see this fight going flawlessly,” Rockhold said on FS1. “I really understand what Michael brings and I know what I have. I’m going to go out there, I’m going to make him realize his true destiny — that’s behind the desk with you guys.

He ain’t going to compete with me. There’s levels to this game, and he’s about to find that out. He didn’t understand last time. It’s time to penetrate that thick skull and make him realize.”

UFC 199 is set to go down live on pay-per-view (PPV) from The Forum in Inglewood, California on June 4th, 2016.

(All transcribed quotes are courtesy of MMAFighting.com)