UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping and top middleweight contender Yoel Romero have a rather lengthy, and very public, rivalry going back quite some time now.

Following Yoel Romero’s knockout of Chris Weidman at UFC 205, where Bisping was in attendance for his Fox Sports 1 duties, the ‘Soldier of God’ campaigned for a fight with Bisping, calling out “I love you Mike!” as part of his post-fight Octagon interview. This started a string of back and forth insults between the pair spanning across the next several months, which saw both men launch scathing verbal attacks at one another.

With that being said however, Romero separates his beef with Bisping in the MMA world from his personal feelings towards Bisping, which may come as a shock to many.

He explained the difference to media members ahead of UFC 213 on Saturday night:

“I follow God. God says love your neighbor as you love yourself. If I need to donate an organ to Mr. Bisping, he can count on it.”

“That does not take away that if we see each other’s face one day in the octagon, I will do everything in my power to get that victory.”

“I see Mr. Bisping as just another fan of MMA and the UFC that really doesn’t like me. The people who the whole world appreciates and likes are people that are blessed. But not everybody likes everyone else. I guess Mr. Bisping doesn’t like me very much, or simply that’s the way he sees the fight.”

“Maybe in his view, the favorite for him is Robert Whittaker. But I’ve said many times to many people, it’s not what man wants…it’s who the creator of life decides.”

Romero of course is currently gearing up for his UFC 213 scrap with Robert Whittaker Saturday night, in a fight which will crown the middleweight #1 contender.

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 7/7/2017.