The UFC hosted a media call for the July 18, UFC Fight Night Glasgow event, which included headliners Michael Bisping, Thales Leites and David Allen, senior vice president and general manager for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA).
Michael Bisping stated he was happy with the match-up against Thales Leites, and stated that no matter which Brazilian he fought, they would be sent home a loser: “Yeah I am happy with the match up, rankings are all well and good, the good thing is I’m fighting someone within the top 10, if it was outside the top 10 I wouldn’t be interested, but Thales ever since he has come back to the UFC, he’s looked very, very good, I think he’s on a five fight win-streak inside the UFC, which is very, very hard to achieve, so make no mistake he’s a very, very tough opponent but I believe I match up well.
“But that said, I’m not letting some Brazilian fly over to the UK for the first time I’ve fought here in five years to beat me in front of my home crowd. So it doesn’t matter if it’s Thales Leites, Anderson Silva, Lyoto Machida, it could be anybody from Brazil, regardless you’re going home a loser and that’s a fact.”
Leites also spoke about fighting Bisping, and his joy about being able to compete in Scotland, a place close to his heart: “My first reaction was happy. Fighting in the UK, especially in Scotland is very nice for me, because it is the main event of the night, and I guess a great opponent, and in Scotland again it’s my dream to visit this place. I’m a big fan from William Wallace from the Braveheart movie, all that story inspired me a lot, I have a tattoo on my ribs and fighting on that land would be very special to me, a lot of energy.”
Also, Bisping answered a question about Uriah Hall, who proceeded to call out “The Count” after his UFC 187 loss to Rafel Natal. Bisping stated his confusion over the matter but called his former training partner ‘a headcase’: “I was as confused as anybody, I’ve been in the training room with Uriah Hall on a couple of occasions in Reign Training Center and I was working the weigh-in show for FOX, said a couple of comments but nothing negative about Uriah and then for some reason, the guy started sending out abusive tweets to me.
“You’d have to ask Uriah Hall, I think the guy is a bit of a head case, obviously mentally weak, and that showed in his fight with Rafael Natal. We have the same a manger so that’s why I sent a nice tweet, I said look listen you’ll learn from that mistake, he’s obviously got a lot of potential, but I’m not arsed for starting any rivalries with Uriah Hall, I’ve got a big fight ahead of me in Thales Leites, I want to be world champion, so all I’m thinking about right now is Thales Leites, the problem that he brings and the show that I want to give to the people in Glasgow.”
You can listen to the full media call in the video above.
