Manchester UFC fighter Michael Bisping returned from a six month-lay off only to lose on points to the man he repeatedly insulted on social media in the build up to the fight.
After a lengthy war of words, middleweight contenders Michael ‘The Count’ Bisping (24-6) and Tim Kennedy (18-4) aired their grievances in last night’s main event in Canada.
The Count was fighting for the first time in just under a year due to surgery to repair a detached retina.
Bisping was defeated by Kennedy after the judges unanimously called the bout in the American’s favour – 49-46, 49-46 and 50-45.
Before the heavily anticipated contest the Manchester fighter had repeatedly ‘called out’ and mocked his opponent, but had to leave the ring with his tail between his legs after being handed a devastating loss.
The back-and-forth between the two middleweight contenders has encompassed all forms of social media, from Twitter to Instagram to YouTube.
In the run up to the bout, both Bisping, the experienced Tweeter, and Kennedy, a fun-loving Army veteran, retorted with various assaults of non-stop smack talk on social media.
So @TimKennedyMMA talks all this shit on the internet but doesn’t have the balls to say a single word to my face.#keyboardwarrior
— michael (@bisping) April 14, 2014
“These things I am saying are not open for debate,” said Bisping. “I have better striking, I am faster than him, I have better footwork, and I can stop his takedowns.
“Let’s just say he does get me down, I will have no problem getting back to my feet, nobody has held me down yet and I doubt Tim Kennedy is going to be the first.
“He is not an accomplished collegiate or Olympic level wrestler. I have fought Olympic level guys and they couldn’t hold me down so I don’t see Tim Kennedy being that guy.
“You put all those things together and it has all the ingredients for a bad night for Tim Kennedy.
“When I am done with Tim Kennedy he is going to be looking for a job in the army recruitment office because fighting in the UFC isn’t going to be his thing.”
Kennedy was just as vocal when it came to criticising the 35-year-olds fighting style and his standard of trash talking.
“It has been a one-sided campaign of talking crap because he sucks so bad,” Kennedy told MMAjunkie.
“Apparently he’s the best at it. Him and Chael Sonnen are supposedly the ones who can talk the most smack, but obviously not because he can’t hang at all with what I’ve been doing the past six weeks.
“I’m fairly disappointed in the allure of Michael Bisping’s crap-talking. He still has a couple days, so hopefully he has an ace up his sleeve. If not, I’ll be disappointed.”
After the fight, Bisping looked to squash the feud giving a few words of praise before leaving the Octagon.
“What happened is happened,” Bisping said, before shaking Kennedy’s hand. “It’s done, its history, congratulations.”
Image courtesy of UFC – Ultimate Fighting Championship, via YouTube, with thanks.
