A middleweight grudge match between popular veteran Michael Bisping and rising contender Luke Rockhold will serve as the headliner for the UFC Fight Night event Nov. 8 in Sydney, Australia.
Bisping (25-6) is coming off a TKO win over Cung Le in August. The TUF 3 winner has alternated wins and losses since 2011. Bisping announced the matchup while serving as an analyst on FOX last week.
Rockhold (12-2) is the former Strikeforce champion that has his sights set on the UFC belt. After losing his UFC debut against Vitor Belfort, Rockhold is coming off back-to-back stoppage victories over Costas Philippou and Tim Boetsch.
The two 185-pounders have thrown verbal jabs at one another for years on social media and through various interviews.
Bisping recently told fightersonlymag.com that the morning after his win over Le in Macau, Rockhold, who attended the event, confronted him.
“[My dad and I] were both nursing a bit of a hangover because we had a couple of drinks the night before, and we’re just having a coffee and catching up,” Bisping said. “Obviously I live in America and [my day] lives in England, so now that all the excitement of the fight and all that stuff was over, we’re just having a conversation catching up on old times. And, lo and behold, there [Rockhold] comes walking over, looking a little bleary-eyed himself. He was probably still feeling the effects for sure, because I’m sure in the cold light of day he wouldn’t come up and start challenging somebody to a fight outside of the Octagon whilst out with family members. I certainly wouldn’t do that, and I’d like to think he wouldn’t.
“So he comes over: ‘Hey Bisping, one round. Come on, I’ll finish you in one round and I want your purse.’ He started going on about that stupid bet that he does, and I just said, ‘Look at the state of ya. Go home, sober up, and stop making a fool out of yourself.'”
Prior to the Bisping matchup being set up, UFC president Dana White hinted that Rockhold’s next opponent would be Lyoto Machida.
In other UFC news:
— A heavyweight matchup between former teammates Travis Browne and Brendan Schaub has been added to UFC 181 in December.
— Top-ranked flyweights Ian McCall and John Lineker are set to meet on Nov. 8 in Brazil with the winner potentially earning a title shot.
— Canadian Mitch Gagnon will now face Rob Font at UFC Fight Night Halifax after his Aljamain Sterling was set to
— Darren Elkins vs. Lucas Martins, Yan Cabral vs. Naoyuki Kotani and Beneil Dariush vs. Alan Patrick have been added to UFC 179.
