“If Yoel beats Chris, I honestly don’t think I’ll fight Yoel, because he tested positive for steroids.”
Michael Bisping had that to say prior to the UFC 205 middleweight clash that was acting as something of an unofficial title eliminator between Yoel Romero and Chris Weidman.
But Romero did indeed come out on top, knocking out the former champion with a brutal flying knee last weekend, and in the post-fight press conference UFC president Dana White announced that the Cuban would be next in line for Bisping’s 185lbs title.
Terrifying #UFC205 https://t.co/lvbs3tZawZ
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) November 13, 2016
And it sounds like ‘The Count’ has changed his tune on the match-up as he discussed a recent phone call with White during which details of Bisping’s second defence were hammered out.
“So a couple of days ago Dana calls me up… and he’s like ‘Mike, January 20. Anaheim. You vs. Yoel Romero.’ I said well to be honest Dana I’ve been getting injections on my knee. Now I’m not saying no to Yoel because believe it or not, after beating Weidman like that, yeah I do fancy it,” Bisping said on his SiriusXM Rush radio show The Countdown, as transcribed by MMA Fighting.
“I was hoping Weidman would win. I always wanted to fight Weidman, more out of respect really. Even though we’ve went back and forth and talked shit, I’ve never really had too much against him. It was more kind of a comedy thing from where I was concerned. But I did want to fight him. That said, Yoel beat him and fair enough I guess. In the fight before, even though he tested positive, he beat Jacare, he beat Weidman, and he beat of bunch of no marks before that. So I guess that would be the fight.”
The Brit had initially suggested that he’d be open to a super-fight with Georges St-Pierre at UFC 206 at the start of December but with the ongoing contract dispute between St-Pierre and the UFC, that’s off the table.
Bisping will instead enjoy some time off with his family in California before welcoming ‘The Soldier of God’ to the Octagon.
“Listen, I’ve had three fights this year,” Bisping continued. “It was only four weeks ago I had a war with Dan Henderson. I want to enjoy Christmas with my family. So January 20 ain’t going to happen. I’m not physically or mentally ready to jump into a training camp right now.
“That fight, that date is nine weeks away. I’d have to start training next week and I’d have to be in training camp all the way through Christmas. My family is coming out for Christmas. I’m planning on having some downtime. I think I’ve earned that. I’ve got a couple injuries I need to heal up. They said, ‘okay, so what time are we looking at?’ and I said, ‘sometime this spring. Some time this spring, 100 per cent. Book the fight.’ He goes, ‘Okay cool. Let me have a look at the calendar, see what dates are available, see what locations, I’ll get in touch and we’ll figure something out.’
“So it’s looking like that will be the next fight, unless something else transpires in some other situation. But it’s like looking me vs. Yoel sometime in the spring.”
That fight gets a firm thumbs-up from us.
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