Michael Bisping Says He “Took Luke Rockhold’s Soul” At UFC 199
Michael Bisping hasn’t forgotten about Luke Rockhold.
‘The Count’ secured his first even UFC title in a jaw-dropping first round knockout win over Rockhold back in June. Rockhold has since remained out of Octagon action due to an injury, however, he recently commented on an episode of The MMA Hour with MMA Fighting’s Ariel Helwani that he’d be prepared to forego a title opportunity to settle his differences with Bisping in a final trilogy bout.
Bisping got the opportunity to respond earlier this week (quotes via MMA Fighting), and stated that he believes Rockhold is done competing in mixed martial arts (MMA) after he ‘took his soul’ in their UFC 199 match-up:
“What is Luke Rockhold doing?” Bisping said. “When did he say he’s going to fight again? What are his plans? I do believe we are now almost in March. That fight was in June. I don’t know what happened there, but I think I took his soul. I don’t think we’ll ever see Luke Rockhold again. I beat the sh*t out of him. I don’t know, I think he’s done. The way he went down, I think so. Why hasn’t he fought again?
“A lot of time has passed. If that were me, I would’ve been right back in there.”
The middleweight champ has no shortage of foes in the 185-pound division, as he also has a bit of unfinished business with former division kingpin Anderson Silva as well. The pair tangled back in February of last year with Bisping taking home the unanimous decision win. The victory came with a bit of controversy, however, as a flying knee at the end of a round by Silva seemed to have rendered the Brit unconscious; but ‘The Spider’ walked away from Bisping without attempting to finish the fight.
Silva recently took home a controversial unanimous decision win over Derek Brunson at UFC 208 earlier this month (Sat. February 11, 2017), a fight that Bisping thinks the Brazilian actually lost:
“I thought he lost,” Bisping said. “I guess you could see an argument for him winning, but I think he disappointed. I thought Anderson really, to be honest, clowned himself, clowned everybody in attendance, clowned the UFC. It was clearly obvious that Anderson was the better fighter. He stopped the takedowns for the most part. His takedown defense looked great. And when he did decide to pull the trigger and actually throw something, he was all over Brunson.
“But he just didn’t pull the trigger. He stood there and he tried to do his usual Anderson Silva thing. He doesn’t fight with a sense of urgency because he’s the great Anderson Silva. Well, unfortunately, that’s not good enough. He got very lucky with the decision, and I feel that it’s a real shame, because like everybody, I’m a fan of Anderson Silva. I like watching him fight. I feel that he didn’t do justice to his legions of fans.”
Bisping also took a shot at Silva’s past issues with performance enhancing drugs (PEDs), stating that Silva looked a little ‘flabbier’ at weigh-ins before his match with Brunson:
“He did,” Bisping said. “I said that at the weigh-ins when I saw at the weigh-ins. He looked a little skinny, and a little flabbier. It’s weird. Weird when you don’t take steroids what happens to you.”
Do you think Bisping and Rockhold will get the opportunity to throw-down once again? Or will Silva instead run it back with the middleweight champ first?
