Gegard Mousasi is done being quiet and is spitting fire with his target in sight, UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping.
Following his second round TKO victory over Vitor Belfort this past weekend in Manchester, England, Mousasi addressed the press and didn’t hold back.
The former Strikeforce light heavyweight champion feels his hasn’t had the respect his deserves and can’t seem to figure out if it’s his nationality or a lack of controversial moments at press conferences.
“I think I’m underrated throughout my whole career. I don’t know,” said Mousasi. “Maybe (because) I’m from Holland, people don’t care, but I don’t know. Maybe throw some bottles at someone’s head and then people going to notice me. With his performance tonight, I like Bisping, but, you guys know I can beat him. I would beat Michael Bisping. I would jab his face the whole night. Easy.”
Mousasi was scheduled to fight Bisping in London earlier this year, at UFC Fight Night 84, until they pulled an audible and announced it would be Bisping vs. Anderson Silva instead. Then, when the UFC 200 main event between Daniel Cormier and Jon Jones was scrapped due to an alleged USADA violation by Jones, Mousasi was rumoured to get the fight with DC, until once again they opted for ‘The Spider’.
“I was scheduled to fight [Bisping], but somehow Anderson Silva shows up,” said Mousasi. “He took my fight. I was supposed to fight DC. I was ready, I was able to go five rounds. It was me or Anderson Silva at that moment. There weren’t other guys to choose from.
“So, Anderson Silva having come from operation, laying on his couch, they woke him up, give him some medical tests and they give him the title shot. He wasn’t able to go five rounds, so he chose to give three rounds and he was just happy holding on for three rounds just to survive. So, in that time, I deserve to fight for the belt if it was me and Anderson.”
Despite the two missed title fight opportunities, Mousasi is still confident that sooner or later the UFC will have no choice but to give him his shot but won’t be trigger happy on bout agreements unless they’re the right fights.
“Now, I’m a little bit smarter. I’m not going to take any fight that’s not going to make sense for me. But I can fight anybody. I’m in my prime now. My time will come.”
With that, Mousasi literally dropped the mic on the UFC 204 post fight press conference desk, but if you thought Mousasi was done for the weekend then think again. Following the event he took to twitter and went gave the MMA community a social media mic drop.
“I beat Hendo in less than 2 minutes and Bisping went 5 rounds with him,” tweeted Mousasi. “F**k it, let’s just go for gold! Dana White give me the champ!”