Anderson Silva and Michael Bisping are in London, England, checking out some famous landmarks as part of a sightseeing promotional tour to hype up their fight this weekend at the O2 Arena. But all that rich history and beautiful architecture isn’t doing much for the Spider’s mood. During their first faceoff since arriving in the country, Michael Bisping extended his hand twice to the former middleweight champion and both times Silva refused to shake it.
“C’mon, Anderson. Come on!” Bisping said as Silva walked away from their faceoff. “Respect, martial arts!”
“I’m going to punch you,” Anderson replied matter of factly in Portuguese as he walked away without looking back.
“See you, buddy!” Bisping called after him. “The champion, everybody! Well done, my friend. Well done. Excellent example to young children!”
Silva’s cold shoulder toward the Brit may have something to do with Bisping’s harsh words regarding Anderson’s failed drug test from last year.
“The guy was a fraud, the guy was a coward. He was taking steroids, was cheating the system, cheating the fans,” Bisping told Ariel Helwani in just one of several similar interviews. “For me, that’s very disappointing, massively disappointing, disappointing for everybody. And he can try and push it under the carpet all he wants, but that ain’t ever gonna go away.”
“And he takes offense in the fact that I dare to mention it? That I dare to mention that in your last fight you took steroids? That is extremely relevant, my friend! Don’t think for one second that I’m gonna let you forget that. You should be ashamed of yourself.”
Anderson Silva’s mindset coming into fights has always been something of a mystery, more so now that we’ve only seen him compete once in the past two years. But if he needed any inspiration to get into a violent mood, Michael Bisping has given him more than enough to work with.
The two will fight Saturday afternoon at 4 p.m. EST, only on the UFC’s Fight Pass streaming service. Depending on what country you’re from, it’s only around 10 bucks a month, so that’s a pretty good deal for a fight this big.
