Michael Bisping Slams Luke Rockhold’s Trash Talk Skills

Following former UFC middleweight champion Luke Rockhold’s UFC Pittsburgh win over David Branch last weekend the Californian attempted to call-out the likes of current 185-pound king Michael Bisping and ex-welterweight frontman Georges St-Pierre – but “The Count” was not impressed.

Speaking to MMA Fighting’s Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour this past Monday to react to Rockhold’s call-out, in which he urged St-Pierre to pull out of what he deemed ‘his fight’ at Madison Square Garden against Bisping for the middleweight title this November, Bisping slammed Rockhold’s ability to string a sentence together after his big win (quotes via MMA Fighting):

“I mean, Jesus Christ, the guy needs to really stop talking. He doesn’t do himself any favors whatsoever, God bless him,” Bisping said. “The guy can’t string a sentence together. Lots of stuttering, lots of interruptions, lots of thinking. Saying that Georges isn’t going to make it into the Octagon and all this type of stuff — I don’t know, maybe I’m wrong, you’ll know better than me, when’s the last time Georges has ever pulled out of a fight? Now that it’s official and we’re doing press and we’re both training, I don’t see Georges pulling out of this fight at all. Has he got a history of doing that? Not to my knowledge.”

While not being impressed with Rockhold’s verbal jab on the mic, the Englishmen didn’t take too much away from his second round stoppage win over a former two-weight World Series Of Fighting (WSOF) champ in David Branch either. Bisping called Rockhold’s win very ‘sloppy,’ and claimed that the American Kickboxing Academy (AKA) product has issues with people who know how to box and get inside:

“I thought that he looked very sloppy, if I’m honest,” Bisping said. “He has a problem with people that can box, people that can get inside. He landed some good shots, the other guy David Branch, and if he had a bit more pop, he could’ve taken Luke out of there. So yeah, listen, congratulations, job well done. [Rockhold] got the finish in the second round, but he needs to be careful, because there’s a lot that could’ve been improved upon, let’s say that.”

While Rockhold did name St-Pierre specifically and did reference Bisping, he never fully mentioned the middleweight champ by name, something that the longtime veteran said he found ‘cute’:

“I noticed that Luke didn’t say my name either,” Bisping said. “He couldn’t bring himself to do it. He talked lots of sh*t and he implied my name many, many times, but he never actually went ahead and said it, which I thought was very cute. But listen, good for him, he’s back on track. Obviously he wants to get a rematch, he wants to get his belt back, and that’s what he should want to do, God bless him. I mean, we’re all fighters, we all want to be champion, so he’s doing the right thing. I don’t fault him for anything he said, really. He’s trying to make noise, he’s trying to get a title fight again. Ultimately, he chose to take 15 months off. He went away from the sport for a little bit, and he’s back and good for him.

“But as we just discussed, Georges is a professional, and if he makes a deal, I expect him to be there, and I would beat my life on Georges turning up. So if that’s what Luke is hoping for, then he’s wasting his time and energy there.”