Tension between Michael Bisping and Jorge Masvidal appears to be a thing of the past.
Masvidal and Bisping had exchanged verbal jabs dating back to “The Count’s” beef with Yoel Romero. Masvidal and Romero are training partners and close friends. Masvidal took issue with Bisping ripping up the Cuban flag during Romero’s first bout with Robert Whittaker back in July 2017.
Bisping & Masvidal Put Their Issues In The Past
During an edition of his “Believe You Me” podcast, Bisping revealed that fellow ESPN desk analyst Chael Sonnen had offered to switch seats in case things got testy with Masvidal during the UFC 239 post-fight show:
“He came up to the desk afterwards and Chael said to me, cause you had Jon Anik on the end, Chael in the middle, and me on the other end. And Chael’s like, ‘are you two guys cool?’ I’m like, ‘honestly I don’t think so. I’ve got no issue with him, but you know how he’s like. He’s a hothead for sure.’ And so Chael said, ‘do you want to stand in the middle so that I’m on the end.’ I’m like, ‘Chael, the f*ck you think I am?’ Do you think I’m gonna b*tch out and say, ‘yeah switch positions because the bad man might get me.’ I’m like, ‘no.'”
Masvidal was on the post-fight show to discuss his stellar five-second knockout victory over Ben Askren. Bisping said things were cordial with Masvidal:
“But listen, Jorge came up and he was cool as f*ck man. And I think he realized, cause when I saw him in London I walked past him. If I wanted to be an asshole there, I could’ve been an asshole. But I said, ‘hey what’s up Jorge?’ And he kind of nodded. I think that was, without saying squashing the beef type thing. But he was cool as hell man. He was cool as hell. I said congratulations, I said some kind words because how can you not?
“At the end of the day, you gotta respect that. What he did out there, that was f*cking phenomenal. Not only did he make history, the fastest knockout in UFC history. He just knocked out a 19-0 undefeated fighter in five seconds or three seconds or two seconds, whatever it was. You gotta give the man his respect and he was very gracious. He took the respect and he didn’t act like an idiot, he didn’t try and start sh*t with me. And he was actually cool, we said some nice words back and forth and I gave him a little hug at the end. So yeah, I don’t know. I guess maybe we’re cool now, you never know.”
