Luke Rockhold responds to Michael Bisping’s knock on Chris Weidman

MEXICO CITY – Not surprisingly, UFC middleweight contender Luke Rockhold doesn’t see eye to eye with Michael Bisping’s assessment of Chris Weidman’s title reign.

After Bisping said “no offense,” but Weidman’s success “very circumstantial,” Rockhold (14-2 MMA, 4-1 UFC), who is in Mexico City to attend Saturday’s UFC 188 card, defended the middleweight champ.

“You can look at it like that, but Chris is the best fighter out there right now, other than myself, and I think he’s proved himself as the guy,” Rockhold told MMAjunkie.

Of course, Rockhold didn’t exactly get along with Bisping when they fought this past November. The two frequently argued in interviews, leading Bisping to declare he’d gotten in Rockhold’s head.

http://mmajunkie.com/2014/11/video-luke-rockhold-michael-bispings-heated-press-conference-face-off

In the end, it was Rockhold who had the last word, stopping Bisping in the second round of their fight via submission. Bisping (26-7 MMA, 16-7 UFC) is next set to fight Thales Leites (25-4 MMA, 10-3 UFC) in the headliner of UFC Fight Night 72 in July.

Now Rockhold, who recently dominated Lyoto Machida, wants to fight Weidman (13-0 MMA, 9-0 UFC) at New York City’s Madison Square Garden at year’s end and called for them to be featured on an “East Coast versus West Coast” version of “The Ultimate Fighter.”

Rockhold doesn’t need to be convinced he’s going to get a tough fight from the champ.

“He went out there and dominated Anderson both times before either incident happened; he almost knocked him out in the second fight,” Rockhold said. “(Lyoto) Machida, he proved himself; I know how tough Machida is. And Vitor (Belfort), eh, I expected that. That didn’t prove anything to me – I already knew who he was before that. I know he’s a very tough guy, but he’s going to face a different beast come our fight.”

For more on UFC 188, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of the site.