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UFC 127 PREVIEW: Michael Bisping - "Jorge Rivera talked himself into a high profile fight and he's going to get his ass kicked"
Feb 17, 2011 - 9:08:51 AM
UFC 127 PREVIEW: Michael Bisping - "Jorge Rivera talked himself into a high profile fight and he's going to get his ass kicked"
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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

BispingMichael_150CG_42.jpg
Michael Bisping returns to Australia this month to meet Jorge Rivera at UFC 127, and he'll look to avoid starting 2011 the way he started 2010.

After bouncing back from his knockout loss to Dan Henderson at UFC 100, Bisping was defeated by Wanderlei Silva at UFC 110 in Australia last February. The close decision loss didn't sit well with Bisping, but he rattled off consecutive wins over Dan Miller and Yoshihiro Akiyama to close out the year.

Now, taking on a veteran in Jorge Rivera, Bisping is bringing a lot of confidence into the fight, but he's not too thrilled with the way Rivera went about getting this fight in the first place.

"I finished 2010 on a high. In 2011, I'm gonna fight Jorge Rivera and beat Jorge Rivera," Bisping said in a video interview for the UFC ahead of the event. "Jorge Rivera said, not only does he want to win this fight, 'i want to f*** him up.' And I was shocked, I've always found Jorge Rivera to be a nice guy, I thought he was a class act."

"Jorge Rivera talked himself into a high profile fight and he's going to get his ass kicked. I was fighting kids at five years old, I'm not scared of anyone. If Jorge Rivera thinks I'm scared of him he's seriously f***ing deluded."

RIvera's been on a run himself, though he hasn't fought in nearly 11 months. On a three fight win streak coming into this bout, including two straight stoppage wins, Rivera feels he can still contend at the top of the division. But despite a history of T(KO) wins throughout Rivera's career, Bisping isn't concerned with Rivera's power punches heading into their co-headlining bout.

"I don't look at him and think 'wow.' He's certainly not Anderson Silva," Bisping said. "He's effective, he seems to hit hard. People always talk about Jorge Rivera's right hand and what a devastating striker he is. I couldn't give a sh*t about his right hand."

"I believe I'm a better mixed martial artist, full stop. I'm going to be in better shape, I've fought much better opponents. I'm going to be dictating what happens in this fight. This is my fight to win, and I'm going to be choosing exactly what happens."

Penick's Analysis: Both of these guys are talking a big game into the fight, and the back and forth of it has made it a bit more entertaining in the lead up than it could have been. This is a good matchup, and it should be a good fight on this Australia card. Bisping, despite the knockout loss to Henderson, has a pretty good chin overall, and he'll need it to hold up against Rivera, especially if he "doesn't give a sh** about his right hand." Bisping's got to be careful about being too cocky and over-confident into the fight, because Rivera can do some damage. I'm looking forward to this fight, though, and it should be an entertaining bout.

[Michael Bisping art by Cory Gould (c) MMATorch.com]


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