Michael Bisping rips 'desperate' Yoel Romero for suggesting an interim title fight

Michael Bisping is busy getting ready for his title fight showdown against Georges St-Pierre later this year, but he can't fend off attacks from other middleweight contenders who are upset about not getting a shot at his belt.

At the top of the list is Yoel Romero, who UFC president Dana White declared as the next fighter in line for the title shot until St-Pierre inked a new four-fight deal with the promotion and requested Bisping as his first opponent in nearly four years.

Since that time, Romero has been understandably upset that he's not getting his shot at the belt and even recently suggested an interim title fight against former champion Anderson Silva while Bisping is busy with his bout against St-Pierre.

It's safe to say, Bisping doesn’t enjoy that idea at all.

"You've got Yoel Romero calling for an interim title shot, which is just desperate," Bisping said on his podcast "Believe You Me" this week. "It's laughable. It's desperate.

"Interim titles are for if the champion is hurt or injured or taking time out. None of that's happening. GSP's fighting for the belt. So shut up, fight someone else in the meantime or sit on the side. One or the other."

Romero hasn't stated whether or not he'll take another fight but right now there's still not date set for the Bisping versus St-Pierre matchup so it's unknown when he could potentially receive a title shot if he continues to wait on the sidelines.

Another top middleweight contender who took offense to Bisping's fight with St-Pierre is No. 3 ranked Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza, who has long been considered a top choice to fight for the gold but still never received a chance to compete for a UFC title.

Most recently, "Jacare" voiced his displeasure about Bisping's next fight by saying he's rooting for a double knockout with St-Pierre while also intimating that if he doesn't get a title shot soon he may just retire from the sport to go teach Brazilian jiu-jitsu instead.

Bisping fired back at "Jacare" by pointing out that he isn't the No. 1 contender regardless of the matchup with St-Pierre.

"Well first and foremost, 'Jacare' come on, my friend, that's a very, very nasty thing to say. I thought you were all about love and God and this and niceness and spreading the beauty of jiu-jitsu and all this [expletive] but yet you call for us both to get knocked out? That's not very Christian is it?" Bisping said.

"Listen, I understand his frustration, of course. But the fact of the matter is he did lose to Yoel Romero. So he's only won two fights since then. So he's really got no one to be mad at but himself. He lost around a year ago so it is what it is. Yoel's ahead of him when this fight happens."

 

As far as possibly retiring to pursue teaching as opposed to fighting, Bisping feels no remorse for "Jacare" and clearly doesn't care much whether the former Strikeforce champion sticks around for not.

"He's saying he can leave the UFC and go teach? Maybe he can," Bisping said. "If you look at 'Jacare,' I'm assuming what he's going to teach is jiu-jitsu. Now, of course, he was one of the best jiu-jitsu practitioners in the world when he switched to MMA and he's very famous in the jiu-jitsu world, multiple time world champion, I'm not really sure what his accolades are but highly, highly respected. So he said in the article if I get 400 students, you do the math. I mean I don't know if you could get 400 students. That's a lot of students to have but maybe he could.

"If you don't want to fight, don't fight. No one's got a gun to your head 'Jacare.' If you want to fight, stick around, if not, go and teach [expletive] jiu-jitsu. I couldn't care less. Stop obsessing over me and my title because it is my [expletive] title. I knocked out [Luke] Rockhold, which you couldn't do, and became champion. So deal with it. If you're not happy, go teach [expletive] jiu-jitsu."