Middleweight contenders Tim Kennedy and Michael Bisping will settle their score in the Octagon in a five-round main event at The Ultimate Fighter Nations: Canada vs. Australia. In the meantime, they'll be trash-talking one another with blogs on Yahoo Sports.
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before …
Some fighter from outside the top 5 in the UFC middleweight division wants to name for himself … so starts an internet “feud” with yours truly … he begins by throwing out a ton of childish insults … then he mixes in some crypto-racist stuff about English people until, finally, I respond by first accepting the fight and then, during the build-up, respond to his smacktalk with some of my own.
At that point, the fighter in question throw a hissy-fit and acts all indignant because I’ve trash talked him. Oh, and then I go on to win the fight, and not much is heard from the fighter again …
Sound familiar? Of course it does, I’ve dealt with this at least four or five times in my career, and it is repeating itself again with Tim Kennedy, who I fight on April 16 in Canada on a Fox Sports 1 card.
The Comrade Kennedy, as he is now known on forums around the world, has been throwing silly comments my way on twitter for literally three years, but now we’ve got a fight to promote I’ve finally responded, pointed out what a hypocrite he is when he moans about fighter pay, his lack of exposure to and, quite possibly, dislike of other cultures, and how disgusting it was for him to bash a great civil rights leader on the day of his death.
And now he’s trying to cry about it. What can I say? That last blog by him was bizarre. Why did he refer to me as “Michelangelo” and himself as Timothy Maximus Aurelius Titus Kennedy VIII, Esquire? WTF? Does he think I’m from the Ancient Roman Empire or something? I know I have an accent, but surely he doesn’t think I’m speaking Italian? This is a guy who can’t tell the difference between any two other cultures. It's embarrassing …
He also seemed to be poking fun of the fact I come from the same country as William Shakespeare … because, you know, reading and writing are thinking to be poked fun at. Yes, Tim, everyone knows I’m from England. I’m proud of being English. I’m proud, too, of having been given the opportunity to travel the world, live in different places, meet different types of people.
I really don’t want to get into a comedy competition with Tim Kennedy in these blogs. I like to consider myself a witty guy, especially before my third pint of beer, but I’m not in a humorous mood. I’m annoyed I’ve lost a year of my career to injury, I’m anxious to go in there, kick ass, and remind everyone why I’m a top-5 ranked middleweight, and get back in the hunt for a title shot.
But one thing I feel I have to respond to from Kennedy’s latest Yahoo blog is when he was insinuating I’m anti-military. Listen, Comrade Kennedy knows nothing about me or my family links to the military. I was born on a military base, my father was a military man and both my brothers served in the Middle East.
My younger brother has done many dangerous, front line, tours in Iraq and my eldest brother was left severally handicapped while serving his country – so I won’t have a frat-party jackass like Kennedy insinuate thatI have anything but the deepest respect for the military.
We get it, Kennedy was in the military. He’s rightly proud of having contributed in that manner. But I’m equally proud of what literally generations of my family have contributed and I won’t have this guy talking crap about that.
Moving on, I’ve been training like a madman. I can’t tell you how good it feels to be training for a fight after I had all that stuff happening with my eye. I’m re-motivated, and am just loving training. I’ve been sparring with a murderers row of UFC fighters, champions from other organizations, and Olympic-level wrestlers.
Last week I was training with Phil Davis and all the other top talent down at the Alliance. Phil is one of the elite wrestlers in the light heavyweight division, so it was great work having him going for takedowns on me. He’s leagues above Kennedy as a wrestler and, as I found out during sparring on Friday, he’s got a hell of a right hand, too.
I’m driving to the gym now and I’ve got Olympic level wrestlers in waiting for me there.
Speak next week. In the meantime, hit me up on Twitter @bisping.
