For a sport with as much face punching and limb breaking as mixed martial arts, it’s a bit strange how much value is placed on hurting your opponent’s feelings. Being kicked in the ear is a professional courtesy, but saying rude things? OH HOW THESE FIGHT TYPES GET STEAMED! (Or kayfabe steamed if it’s all about fight promo.) UFC middleweight titleholder Michael Bisping fancies himself pretty good at talking sh*t. His opponent Georges St-Pierre? He doesn’t think much of the Brit’s gift of gab.
Appearing on The MMA Hour, GSP gave a rather damning appraisal of the xXx thespian’s verbal skills. Addressing their (occasionally belligerent) press conference encounter, the Canadian UFC legend noted that he knows good trash talk when he hears it.
“I thought he would be absent from that press conference when it first started and he wasn’t there. And he started yelling at me. You know, there are a lot of guys who are very good trash talkers in this game. Conor McGregor is one, Chael Sonnen is one, he’s an expert. And I always feel like I cannot get into a war of words with these guys, because first, English is not my first language, and I’m just not good at trash talking. I do my talking in the fight. I’m not a good talker, I’m a good fighter.”
“But what I can say is this: I do not believe Michael Bisping is a good trash talker. I believe the best thing he did for me was to talk, because he embarrassed himself every time he opened his mouth. So he did the job for me. I didn’t even have to say anything.”
Both parties seemed to comfortable in their fight-selling personas at that bring press hootenanny. Bisping was brash, loud and the subject of questions about his alcohol intake. St-Pierre leaned into the role of quiet athlete that lets his opponent bring the fire.
St-Pierre dressing down Bisping’s promos and verbal jabs also included a bit of insight into what was said between the two at the press conference. Once again, GSP also noted that his trash talking isn’t anything to fawn over.
“Some stupid stuff, nonsense, like ‘you’re small, I’m going to beat you,’” he offered. “And I said something like, ‘yeah, you might be tall, but you’re going to fall from high.’ B.S. stuff. I’m just not good at talking. I pick my fights carefully because it’s not my thing, it’s not my first language, and if I get into a war of words, it’s not my thing. But he’s not a good trash talker. He’s terrible at it. The more he talks, the more he embarrasses himself and the more he looks bad.”
Bisping did score high marks from GSP in other categories. St-Pierre heaped praise on Bisping for speaking out loudly against performance enhancing drugs. GSP says the challenge is “inspiring” and bills their future tilt as “the most dangerous fight that I’ve taken in my entire career.”
(Via MMA Fighting)
