Video: Bisping, Rockhold jaw at UFC Fight Night 55 press conference

The rivalry between UFC middleweights Michael Bisping (25-6 MMA, 15-6 UFC) and Luke Rockhold (12-2 MMA, 2-1 UFC) was on full display in their first public appearance for a headlining bout at UFC Fight Night 55.

In a video clip from a press gathering in Sydney, where the event takes place Nov. 8 at Allphones Arena, Bisping and Rockhold briefly go nose-to-nose after jawing about each other’s knockout prowess.

Although neither fighter has scored a clean knockout of an opponent using their fists, the pair mock each other while debating the definition of a KO. UFC PR reps, wanting to avoid another dustup at a press conference, step in before the words can escalate to violence.

“Who have you ever knocked out?” Rockhold starts.

“Your boy last weekend,” retorts Bisping, referring to a fourth-round stoppage of Rockhold’s former training partner Cung Le at UFC Fight Night 48 this past month.

“You call that a f–king knockout?” growls Rockhold as a PR rep steps in.

The atmosphere was a lot less collegial than the middleweights’ meeting in late 2012, when Bisping sparred with Rockhold in Las Vegas. At the time, Rockhold held the belt in the now-defunct Strikeforce. Bisping proclaimed afterward that he was the promotion’s unofficial champion, which kicked off a series of verbal jabs in the press.

After an unsuccessful callout of Vitor Belfort, the last man to beat him, Rockhold pushed for a fight with Bisping, whom he said violated an unwritten code by talking about their sparring session. He added he wasn’t his best that day due to a previous night of heavy drinking.

Things could have gotten better when Bisping said in several interviews that he regretted his comments. But when the two ran into each other earlier this year at a gym in Las Vegas, Rockhold said Bisping gave him the cold shoulder.

“That was it for me,” he said. “Say you’re sorry. You had your opportunity, face-to-face, in the first time I’d seen him. He just kind of walked by me and didn’t say anything. Then he saw my friend in the parking lot and he’s like, ‘I hope Luke’s not still pissed about what I said.’

“You had the opportunity to say it to my face and you didn’t. Apologize. Be a man, and when he couldn’t spit that out, pretty much that’s it for me. If you give me a sincere apology and you tell me face-to-face, I’ll respect you. But I just can’t respect someone who’s going to (tell) a second-hand apology through a friend in the parking lot. It doesn’t fly. He’s going to pay for his comments.”

At the time, Bisping still needed to get by standout Tim Kennedy. When he suffered a decision loss to the former Strikeforce contender, it delayed the grudge match. But a win over Le put Bisping back in the winner’s circle and justified the matchup.

Rockhold and Bisping are both hungry to get back into title contention, and the winner of the bout could be very close to a shot at the belt currently held by Chris Weidman, who next meets Belfort at UFC 181.

For more on UFC Fight Night 55, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.