Michael Bisping Rolls With Luke Rockhold Five Years After UFC 199
Former UFC middleweight champions Michael Bisping and Luke Rockhold have seemed to bury the hatchet after their past beef and intense moments in the octagon during their careers.
Since retiring from the UFC following his loss to Kelvin Gastelum at UFC Fight Night 122, Bisping is now a prominent voice on the UFC’s broadcast team on ESPN. Rockhold is awaiting a middleweight return to the UFC for later this year after taking a nearly two-year hiatus from the octagon after losing to Jan Blachowicz at UFC 239.
Despite his retirement, Bisping is a long-time martial artist who still actively trains. He and Rockhold had the chance to train together with coach Jason Parillo at RVCA Sport and the two seemed to be respectful and cordial. A video captured of the two on Bisping’s Instagram shows the two former champions getting some mat work in and being pretty competitive in the process.
Even though Bisping and Rockhold have since put their intense rivalry aside since they went their separate ways following UFC 199, the competitive fire between the two rivals still exists. Bisping pulled off one of the biggest upsets in UFC history at UFC 199 by knocking out Rockhold cold to earn the middleweight title and finally earn the belt he long coveted during his long career in combat sports.
Rockhold still has middleweight title aspirations since losing the belt to Bisping five years ago and has even called out the champion Israel Adesanya as an easy matchup for him. Adesanya faces top contender Marvin Vettori this Saturday at UFC 263 in Glendale, AZ. He has been awaiting a fight contract from the UFC for months and could make his return later this summer, at the earliest.
As for Bisping, the UFC Hall of Famer continues to enjoy life away from the UFC octagon. While it’s clear that Rockhold and Bisping will almost certainly have some sort of tension together stemming from their two fights in the UFC, it’s nice to see them being respectful with each other and even being a bit competitive when rolling together.
What are your thoughts on Luke Rockhold and Michael Bisping training together years after their rivalry?
