UFC lightweight John Makdessi has taken a shot at Michael Bisping for what he believes to be biased commentary from the former champion.
Makdessi saw his three-fight unbeaten run in the division come to an end back at UFC Brasilia when he was beaten by unanimous decision by veteran Francisco Trinaldo. Prior to that, his last defeat in the Octagon came back at UFC 206 in December 2016.
One of the men on commentary for the Brasilia fight was Michael Bisping, and during a recent interview with FanSided, Makdessi revealed that he feels a past beef between the two men impacted Bisping’s commentary towards him.
“He’s one of the fighters that was accusing me of stealing money,” Makdessi said of Bisping. “He was commentating. So once I got back home, I watched the fight, and I heard his commentary, talking about a lot of things that made no sense. I just find it very funny how a guy like that … he wasn’t the smartest fighter. He took a lot of damage, he took a lot of shots. And I’m very surprised by how he’s commentating. Especially when he was doing the commentary of my flight, you know, I found it funny how he said I was running away, but any intelligent person understands. When you look at my fight, you understand why I was moving a lot, because he was very aggressive. He was coming forward. So, as a counter fighter, I was just being the smartest fighter, I would move away from him to keep my distance, but also having an 80 percent torn ACL. So, all things considering, I find it very unfortunate that Michael Bisping of all people, was doing the commentary and by the way, when he was talking, you could tell he has a grudge against me.
Makdessi then clarified on the accusations against him. It all stemmed from his involvement in a company called Fear the Fighter.
“The fighters, they said I stole money from them, which obviously was false,” Makdessi said. “I had nothing to do with the finances, I was just a name on the paper. Straight up, if he reads this interview. He has more money than me, guaranteed and I never took his f–king money. If anything, being a part of Fear the Fighter, having my name on as one of the owners, was one of my biggest learning mistakes because I trusted the people. I trust in others to run a business and I took that gamble. But, call me a stealer, call me a thief, he’s incompetent. He sucks, he’s not even good at commentary.”
What do you think of these comments from John Makdessi? How do you think Michael Bisping will respond?
This article first appeared on BJPENN.com on 4/22/2020.