Justin Gaethje returned inside the octagon this past week at UFC 286, where he squared off against top lightweight contender Rafael Fiziev. Gaethje also known as ‘The Human Highlight’ didn’t disappoint his fans as he delivered yet another exciting fight, earning a majority decision victory and a record 11th performance bonus.
Interacting with the media at the post-fight press conference, Gaethje publically expressed his opinions on former UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping terming him as a ‘biased’ and ‘unprofessional’ commentator.
Talking to the media Gaethje said “I thought (Usman) won the fight, but I’m probably as biased as the judges. Certainly not as biased as Michael Bisping. He shouldn’t have been nowhere near a microphone during that fight. It sucks,” Gaethje continued “It’s not my call (to have him on the broadcast or not). I just thought it was very unprofessional.”
How did Michael Bisping react to the criticism?
Michael Bisping didn’t take much time in responding to the 34-year-old accusations, labeling his remarks as “utter nonsense”. In a recent video published on his own YouTube channel, Bisping said,
“Justin Gaethje… congratulations on talking utter nonsense at the post-fight press conference, Come on. I’m unprofessional? … Was I unprofessional when I said you were fantastic? … I get it. Justin is disappointed for his teammate, and I actually commend that… (But) I am not biased at all. And if anything, I have more of a relationship with Kamaru Usman than I do Justin Gaethje”.
Fellow broadcasters come in support of Michael Bisping
Fortunately for Bisping, this time he had the support of his fellow commentators Jon Anik and UFC Hall of Famer Daniel Cormier. Talking about the whole situation, Cormier who himself has been accused of being biased, said,
“People always call me biased. The reality is everybody has a little bit of that in them, right, but I thought he did a good job…We were on air four-and-a-half hours before we even got on to the main card…It’s ridiculous, bro, we had 15 fights on Saturday night, so it was a long long day. I thought Mike did a fantastic job as he always does.”
2) The job of MMA commentator is not as hard as that of fighter, judge, or referee, but it's hard. We are judged on every utterance over 8+ hours and certainly there are things we'd love to take back. Someone is usually upset w/ something. Never had a perfect show. Never will.
— Jon Anik (@Jon_Anik) March 20, 2023
Veteran UFC broadcaster Jon Anik also had some kind words for Michael Bisping terming the job of an announcer as “pretty hard”.
Do you think Michael Bisping was biased towards his hometown hero Leon Edwards or Gaethje overreacted for his teammate?
