According to a Jan. 29 report from MMA Mania, UFC middleweight contender Costa Philippou wants to square off against MMA veteran Michael Bisping.
"I know the UFC doesn't usually like matching up someone coming off a loss with somebody coming off of a win," Philippou said. "In this case it's a big difference because Bisping is Bisping and he's been around forever. The guy has fought a who's who of MMA, I think it works out well for both of us. He gets to fight in his hometown against somebody who is in the top five or top 10 who has five wins in a row. If he beats me he'll be right in the mix again and if I beat him I'm right up there too. I think it's something for him to think about. The guy is a striker who is willing to strike and I'm willing to strike, it'll make for an exciting fight. If I was him I would take the fight. Being that it would be in his hometown, they wouldn't have to try and sell the fight. The arena would be sold out in no time, all the tickets would be sold immediately. Bisping is a national hero over there and I wouldn't mind beating him in his hometown."
It's hard to argue with Philippou's logic. Bisping dropped two of his last three, but he's still a legit middleweight contender at age 33.
FightMatrix.com ranks Bisping as the No. 12 middleweight in the world, while Philippou is ranked No. 8.
“I’m not the trash talking kind of guy,” admitted Philippou. “If he wants to trash talk and say things about me, I’m not that sensitive, I don’t mind. I’ll let him do his job and sell the fight. At the end of the day it will be me and him in the cage and if he says something that really gets to me then I’ll take it out on him inside the Octagon. I have too much respect for the guy, he is a great fighter. The more he keeps trash talking me the more I will keep giving him compliments! We’ll try a different approach this time, everyone keeps trash talking one another, I am going to give compliments to everybody.”
Philippou is riding a five-fight win streak in the UFC.
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