Michael Bisping’s most notable rivalry throughout his UFC career came against Luke Rockhold, but it was a feud with Jorge Rivera that came first.
Michael Bisping‘s middleweight feud with Luke Rockhold will go down as one of the biggest rivalries in the promotion’s history, with both fighters holding a pure hatred for one another.
Their historic rivalry ended with Bisping becoming the first-ever British UFC champion after knocking Rockhold out at UFC 199.
However, it was a rivalry with Jorge Rivera in 2011 that showcased Bisping’s personality to the UFC fans, but ultimately left the UFC boss Dana White furious.
Michael Bisping faced potential suspension after spitting at Jorge Rivera’s corner team
Five years into his UFC tenure, Bisping was matched up against Rivera, who was coming off the back of a few impressive wins.
At this point, ‘The Count’ had somewhat garnered a reputation for getting extremely close to a middleweight title shot before suffering a devastating defeat, putting him back in an unfortunate position.
After a loss to Wanderlei Silva, Bisping was looking to once again build up enough momentum to potentially benefit from a title shot.
Ahead of their clash at UFC 127, Bisping and Rivera were involved in several verbal exchanges and were even separated by a group of security at the weigh-ins after they traded verbal assaults.
The Brit started the fight well and dominated Rivera with several takedowns, before landing an illegal knee which resulted in a point deduction. Despite claiming the knee was accidental, many fighters and fans believed it was intentional.
Despite the point deduction, Bisping came out in round two and scored a knockout over Rivera. However, that wasn’t the end of their rivalry.
The Brit went over to confront Rivera’s corner immediately after the win, and allegedly spat at his corner team. He then went over to confront Rivera further for his pre-fight comments, claiming that he disparaged his family.
Dana White was furious with Bisping following controversial UFC 127 win
Bisping faced potential charges and suspensions for his antics at UFC 127, and the whole thing left Dana White furious, so much so that he didn’t pay Bisping for his win.
“I talked to Mike, and he’s sorry. Listen, I like Michael Bisping, I’ve known him a long time, I did season three of The Ultimate Fighter (with him), and when you meet the guy, is Michael Bisping cocky? Yes. He’s a f—— professional fighter,” White explained to Ariel Helwani.
“What he did was (stupid), at the end of the day, I’m not the athletic commisssion, the athletic commission are the ones who impose fines and do all these other things, what I did to Michael Bisping and not a lot of people know but the fighters know.
“The fighters who fight for me know exactly what I’m saying when I say this, Mike Bisping didn’t get a bonus. He was not bonused for his fight and believe me that hurts worse than anything else anyone could’ve done. I let him know exactly how I felt about it,” White continued.
Despite Bisping claiming the knee wasn’t intentional, the UFC boss stated that he thinks it was definitely intentional.
“I disagree. I think the knee was intentional and he absolutely meant to spit on that guy,” White stated.