Luke Rockhold questions the character of 'classless' Michael Bisping
According to former middleweight champion Luke Rockhold, UFC 199 opponent Michael Bisping approached him immediately after he recovered from a Saturday night knockout and, instead of shaking hands, mocked him.
"That guy's such a (expletive)," Rockhold said at the UFC 199 postfight press conference. "You show your true colors after a fight. That guy comes up to me like, 'Do you know where you are!?' Like, I (expletive) picked you up off the canvas and gave you respect [after the first fight]."
Rockhold explained Tuesday in a lengthy statement released on Instagram that the postfight encounter with Bisping was the reason he was so smug after the fight and he doesn't believe in "kicking a man when he's down."
Many thought the feud between Rockhold and Bisping would be over and done with following a rematch of their 2013 fight, where Rockhold won by submission. But the aforementioned snub only exacerbated things, and the intensity between the two middleweights spilled over into the postfight press conference.
Bisping said at the presser that he'd be happy to give third-ranked middleweight Jacare Souza a shot at the title, a matchup he accused Rockhold of dodging. And though that would be an awesome fight, a trilogy fight between Bisping and Rockhold would sell a lot of tickets and allow for more contenders to emerge in the middleweight division.
