Michael Bisping has responded to Justin Gaethje.
After the UFC 286 main event, Gaethje spoke to the media about his co-main event win over Rafael Fiziev. When asked about the main event which saw Leon Edwards beat his friend Kamaru Usman, he was critical of Bisping’s commentary. He thought the Brit was biased and made it known he didn’t think Bisping should have been anywhere near a mic that night.
Now, after those comments, Michael Bisping took to his YouTube channel to respond to Gaethje and thought he was fair in his commentary. Bisping says he called what he saw, which was a competitive fight but one that he thought Edwards won.
‘I understand he is annoyed’
“He says I’m unprofessional and I shouldn’t be anywhere near a microphone. But, he says that he is clearly as biased as the judges, what does that mean? I’m not trying to have fun at Justin Gaethje, I respect this guy a lot,” Bisping said on his YouTube channel. “But, if he is just as biased as the judges then he thinks Leon won, because the judges think Leon won. He just misspoke, but still, he is having a go at me so I’ll have a little fun back. No, listen, I respect Justin, I won’t get into an argument with him online. I did shoot him a message directly and said ‘what the hell, man, you are out of line.’ He said ‘lol’ and I said ‘yeah, lol indeed, congrats on a great win’ because it was a great win.
“I understand he is annoyed, and you know what, to be honest, I actually respect that. Justin Gaethje is a tremendous fighter, I would never ever sit here and talk about his fighting style, or disrespect him, I have too much respect for anyone that steps foot into the Octagon,” Bisping continued. “Kamaru Usman is his primary training partner, they are both taught by Trevor Wittman, he is their head coach, they train together, they flew out together, they were living at an Air BNB together. Of course, he wants Kamaru to win, that is his teammate, that is his brother in arms, of course, he does.
“But, he didn’t win, he got beat, it was a close fight. I’m not ripping on Kamaru, it was a very close fight and Leon clearly won in my opinion and the judges echoed that sentiment and I think generally universally everyone agrees. I haven’t seen an outcry of robbery or anything like that. Justin is just being a loyal friend and a loyal teammate,” Bisping concluded.
Although Gaethje wanted to see Bisping not call the fights, it doesn’t seem like the UFC will remove broadcasters if they have friends or fellow countrymen fighting that night. But, we did see Paul Felder step aside from the booth when his close friend Jared Gordon fought on Fight Island as he knew he would be biased.
