Michael Bisping explains why he criticized Colby Covington after UFC 225

Shortly after he won the interim welterweight title by defeating Rafael dos Anjos at UFC 225, Colby Covington connected with Karyn Bryant, Kenny Florian, Michelle Waterson and Michael Bisping on the UFC 225 post-fight show. While he probably expect some typical post-fight questions, he ultimately found himself engaged in a verbal skirmish with Bisping, one of MMA’s best trash talkers.

Turn sound on. Grab some popcorn. You're welcome. pic.twitter.com/8q2QxCvXxL

— FOX Sports: UFC (@UFCONFOX) June 10, 2018

In the wake of this confrontation, several members of the MMA community, including Octagon commentator Jon Anik, criticized Bisping for his aggression. Covington also went off on the former middleweight champ, calling him “completely unprofessional” on the latest episode of BJPENN.COM Radio.

Now, Bisping has responded to this blowback, explaining why he spoke to Covington the way he did.

“He came right hot out of the gate,” Bisping said on his Believe You Me podcast (transcribed by Jed Meshew for MMA Fighting). ”I get it, the guy’s charged and he’s kind of made a career out of being controversial and what-not. Maybe if I could do it again I’d calm down, I‘d bring it down just a notch but the first thing he said was ‘Hey, I’ve got all my haters in one spot. Blah blah blah.’ So I said, hold on a minute, just listen, we actually gave you a lot of compliments…

“Colby Covington, he’s mister controversy. Everywhere he goes he tries to create controversy. For crying out loud he Tweets out spoilers to the new Star Wars movies and things like that. So when he came on, the first thing he did was, ‘f**k you guys up there on the panel. Kiss my ass, you all picked me to lose!’ So I thought, okay here we go, we’ve got Colby Covington in rare form – this is what he likes to do – so I thought maybe I’d be a sparring partner for him.

“I wasn’t offended by anything that he said. . . I thought if Colby wants to have a Colby-esque moment and create drama and controversy then I’ll be a sparring partner with him. I gave it back to him a little bit.“

What did you think of Colby Covington’s post-fight exchange with Michael Bisping?

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 6/14/2018.