Michael Bisping är redo att försvara bältet mot Yoel Romero trots sina tidigare kommentarer. Enligt honom kommer titelmatchen bli av någon gång under våren – och han ser fram emot att tysta alla som tvivlar på honom som mästare.
Innan förra helgens UFC 205: Alvarez vs. McGregor uppgav mellanviktsmästaren Michael Bisping (30-7) att han inte tänkte möta Yoel Romero (12-1) – oavsett om han skulle besegra Chris Weidman (13-2). Detta med motiveringen att han tidigare testat positivt för otillåtna substanser.
Efter Romeros brutala knockoutvinst har han dock ändrat sig.
”Yoel beat him and fair enough I guess”
I det senaste avsnittet av hans podcast The Countdown gav Bisping sina tankar kring Romero och menade att han nu är beredd att möta honom, även om han hellre hade mött Weidman. Dock vill han först ta hand om sina skador, vilket utesluter UFC 208 i Anaheim som föreslogs av UFC:s vd Dana White.
”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,” sa han och fortsatte:
”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.”
”It’s looking like me vs. Yoel sometime in the spring”
Bisping tänker även njuta av lite tid med familjen och fira jul innan han börjar träna inför nästa titelförsvar. Därav blir en match under våren mer lämplig, förklarade han.
”Listen, I’ve had three fights this year. 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%. 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 looking like me vs. Yoel sometime in the spring.”
”I’ve fought a lot of cheaters”
Även om Bisping nu går med på att möta Romero och även berömmer honom för vinsten, innebär dock inte det att hans åsikter om kubanen förändrats. Han poängterar Romeros dopingavstängning och menar att det är uppenbart att han dopar sig, även fast han lyckades bevisa att det positiva testet förorsakades av ett kontaminerat kosttillskott.
”All credit to Romero, all credit. He timed it nicely and he landed a good flying knee. I don’t plan on headbutting Yoel Romero’s knee. So therefore that won’t work. And as I said, he’s 5′ 2” so he won’t be able to jump up and flying knee me in the face – well, depending on how many steroids he’s taken that year. Because let’s not forget, he did just come back from serving a steroid suspension. And he can say whatever he wants but listen, that guy is on steroids. We all know it. It’s as simple as that. But will I fight him? God damn fucking right I’ll fight him…
”I’ve fought a lot of cheaters of the years and my stance on that stuff is strong as you know, but if that’s the fight that’s gonna go down – I don’t want people to be like, ’he’s just ducking Romero. He’s ducking Romero’ because that’s not the case at all. I’m not ducking Romero so fuck it. If that’s the circumstances, that’s the circumstances. But I want very, very stringent testing throughout camp. I want him to be tested pretty much every week on a random day.”
”I want to fight the No. 1 contender”
I dagsläget tvivlar fortfarande många på Bispings legitimitet som mästare och enligt honom skulle en vinst över Romero få tyst på dessa kritiker en gång för alla.
”If I go out there and beat Yoel Romero then you can’t deny any of my achievements. There are some assholes still out there who say, ’he got lucky against Rockhold and he picked on an old guy against Henderson.’ I want to fight the No. 1 contender. I want to.”
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Omslagsbild: Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
