Michael Bisping clarifies post-fight exchanges with Luke Rockhold

In the main event of UFC 199, Michael Bisping shocked the world as he knocked Luke Rockhold out cold in the very first round of their UFC 199 middleweight title scrap.

Following the fight, Bisping and Rockhold engaged in two heated verbal exchanges. The first was in the Octagon, where Rockhold refused to shake Bisping’s hand a second time. The second was at the post-fight press conference when Rockhold began stating that he would “kill” Bisping. The pair exchanged heated words in front of media members, and ultimately had to be separated.

During a recent episode of The MMA Hour, Bisping clarified what happened:

“Let me clarify my side of the story. What happened was I went over to Luke and, like I always do, win or lose you always shake your opponent’s hand. And I went and shook his hand and it was heartfelt. And then I was having my moment, and I was walking around the Octagon. The Octagon is kind shaped like a circle, with square sides.

“And I was having my moment, and I found myself walking past Luke again, so I wasn’t just going to walk past him and ignore him. I walked past him and I went to reiterate my sentiments, saying listen, again, I love you bud, and he said, ‘I’ve already shaken your hand,’ really aggressively, and he gave me a dirty look. I said excuse me? ‘I’ve already shaken your hand,’ and I said, ‘so that’s how you’re going to be — you’re going to be a sore loser? Well the pardon my French, but go eff yourself.’”

“So sparks flew, then afterwards in the press conference, I walked it…and as I was walking in he was talking about how he was going to kill me, he’s calling me a maggot, [saying]‘I’m going to destroy this guy, I’m going to absolutely kill Michael Bisping,’ and I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold on a minute. Buddy. Buddy. You just got knocked out two minutes ago, just relax.”

Bisping also added “I do regret the negative connotations that surrounded that.”