Michael Bisping made the rounds last week when he called controversial welterweight Colby Covington a ‘prick’ on live television.
Bisping kicked off with Covington when the newly-crowned welterweight champion dissed his coach, Jason Parillo, and called the FS1 broadcast team ‘haters’ on the UFC 225 post-fight show.
“All my haters in one studio,” Covington said while celebrating his championship win over Rafael dos Anjos. “I appreciate it guys, but what kind of excuses are you gonna make for RDA now?
“And Michael Bisping, I thought you said your coach Jason Parillo was good.”
Bisping responded by telling ‘Chaos’ to wind his neck in and lose the chip on his shoulder, but the former UFC middleweight champ received criticism from fellow analyst and commentator Jon Anik, who called ‘The Count’s’ interview with Covington ‘disgraceful’.
Bisping, 39, said Anik’s comments ‘stung a little bit’ and says his ‘sparring’ session with Covington was all in good humor.
“Colby Covington, he’s Mr. controversy,” Bisping said on Believe You Me in a recent podcast (h/t Jed Meshew of MMA Fighting). “Everywhere he goes he tries to create controversy. For crying out loud, he Tweets out spoilers to the new Star Wars movies and things like that. So when he came on, the first thing he did was, ‘f**k you guys up there on the panel. Kiss my ass, you all picked me to lose!’ So I thought, okay here we go, we’ve got Colby Covington in rare form – this is what he likes to do – so I thought maybe I’d be a sparring partner for him.
“I wasn’t offended by anything that he said. . . I thought if Colby wants to have a Colby-esque moment and create drama and controversy then I’ll be a sparring partner with him. I gave it back to him a little bit.
“Those comments stung a little bit,” Bisping said of Anik’s derogatory comments, who later apologized on social media. ”If you’ve got a problem, maybe just shoot me a text, maybe give me some advice. Maybe say, ‘Yo Mike, just giving you some advice as a friend. When you’re in that position, try and separate yourself as a fighter.’ Maybe try and guide me along. Don’t say, ‘Hey, I’m hoping this motherf**ker gets fired. He definitely needs to be reprimanded by Fox and this is disgraceful and he should be ashamed.’”
Despite Anik’s criticism, Bisping maintains a healthy relationship with the long-time analyst and says he’s only looking to make friends, not enemies, with his fellow colleagues at FOX Sports.
“There’s no beef. I respect Jon greatly, Bisping continued. “I respect him as a commentator, I respect him as a professional, and as a person. I truly do, I’m just having a bit of fun with it. He said it, he apologized, whatever. I couldn’t care less. I’m not in the habit of trying to make enemies. I’m trying to make friends and not hold grudges against people for a silly little Tweet.“
Bisping, The Ultimate Fighter 3 light heavyweight tournament winner, officially announced his retirement last month after dropping back-to-back losses to Georges St-Pierre and Kelvin Gastelum. The British fan favorite is expected to be inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame in the coming months.
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