Michael Bisping: UFC 199 Was ‘The Easiest Night of My Life’

Michael Bisping spoke following his win over Luke Rockhold at UFC 199 to capture the UFC middleweight title. Some highlights are below:

On his title win: “The easiest few weeks of my life. (Before I got the call to fight at UFC 199) I was drinking beer on a movie set filming XxX (with) Vin Diesel, Samuel L. Jackson – no big deal. The easiest night of my life, the easiest fight, the easiest camp, the easiest payday. Thank you, Luke.”

On having lost to Rockhold previously: “I sparred Luke before, and I know sparring doesn’t count, but I did kind of wipe the floor with him. In the (last) fight he got lucky; he caught me with a nice head kick. I wanted this rematch so bad, and I wanted a title fight so bad. So when the opportunity came on two weeks’ notice, I didn’t even think about it. I said going into this fight – I think I’ve always trained too hard in the past. I’ve always over trained. My power was better tonight because I had a shorter camp. … I could see it coming. I definitely had the speed advantage. He was telegraphing all his shots. I have a mean left hook.”

On his confidence being an asset: “I’ve always knew I was at this level. I’ve had my ups and downs, and I’ve lost some fights along the way. I don’t want to get into the whole performance-enhancing drugs thing, but that was kind of an issue over the years. But I still believed. I always dusted myself off and picked myself back up. I know I had a lot of detractors that didn’t believe I was at that caliber, but I want to thank those guys as well. They fueled me on and helped light that fire inside me. I always knew I could do this. I always knew I had punching power. I knew I had the ability, and tonight, of course, I got to show everybody.”