Michael Bisping willing to fight 'unprofessional' ex-UFC champ 'Rampage' Jackson at 'any weight'

Michael Bisping

Michael Bisping and Quinton Jackson were once friends and teammates. That’s no longer the case, though, because the two fighters now appear to be bitter rivals.

Prior to Bisping’s (27-7 MMA, 17-7 UFC) move to the United States, he and Jackson (36-11 MMA, 8-5 UFC) both trained at Wolfslair Fight Team in England. “Rampage” joined the team in 2008 and trained alongside Bisping for several years before “The Count” parted ways with the gym in 2012.

Jackson has hinted at a strain in his relationship with Bisping in the past, but always stopped short of explaining exactly what created the tension between the two athletes.

On a recent Twitch broadcast, however, Jackson finally opened up about what happened with Bisping, and said he would be eager to share the octagon with his former teammate in order to settle their differences.

Quinton “Rampage” Jackson

“F-ck Michael Bisping,” Jackson said. “He’s a traitor. I was going through another court case that you guys don’t know about. I was always cool with Bisping, helped him train. I even paid half on some of his training camps, but he wanted me to pay for his sparring partners. He would hurt my sparring partners and all this bullsh-t. I would never care. I was always cool with him. Then he gave a statement against me in the other lawsuit. That’s bullsh-t. How you going to do that to somebody who helped you out?

“That’s why I said I would like to fight Bisping. He’s a f-cking a–hole. I’ve never done anything wrong to him. You don’t do that to your teammates. He’s a cheap motherf-cker because he doesn’t like to pay his manager when he owes him money. That doesn’t have anything to do with me. In order to help his case, he lies on me and gives some bullsh-t statements. I’d fight him on the playground if I knew I wouldn’t go to jail.”

There are several problems that stand in the way of making a matchup between Bisping and Jackson. Not only do they compete in different weight classes, but Jackson also has an ongoing legal battle with Viacom and Bellator that has raised legitimate questions about when and where he’ll next compete.

If Jackson’s able to clear a path to return to the UFC’s octagon, Bisping said he’d oblige the former light heavyweight champion in a grudge match. Moreover, Bisping said he’d be willing to return to the 205-pound division for the first time since November 2007 to make it happen.

“He’s so unprofessional he can’t even make 205, let alone a catchweight,” Bisping wrote on his official Twitter account. “I’ll fight him any weight he wants though.”

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