UFC
Michael Bisping planning on sending Jason "Mayhem" MIller to the hospital at TUF 14 Finale
Nov 28, 2011 - 9:15:44 PM Michael Bisping planning on sending Jason "Mayhem" MIller to the hospital at TUF 14 Finale

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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

Michael Bisping has made his feelings on Jason "Mayhem" Miller clear throughout the last several months, and as their coaches fight at The Ultimate Fighter 14 approaches, he hasn't softened his stance.

"I'll be honest the way I feel about it, I could have laid on my couch for six months eating pizza and got off my ass and kicked the (expletive) out of him," Bisping said in an interview with MMAWeekly.com. "Unfortunately for him, I've just done a 10-week training camp as if I was facing Anderson Silva. This guy's got nothing on me. I'm looking forward to proving it."

Bisping took the fight in order to be a part of The Ultimate Fighter again, and to get the added hype and exposure that came along with taking part in the series that launched his UFC career. But it's not the fight he was looking for initially, and he doesn't think a win over Miller is necessarily going to get him to a title fight.

"Far be it from me to question the UFC, that's not what I'm about and I don't do that," he said. "They tell me who I'm fighting and I fight and try to win. I want to fight for the title soon. I thought my next opponent after I beat Jorge Rivera, I thought my next opponent I want a big name, I want to be them, and I want to win and get a title shot."

"Obviously, The Ultimate Fighter came around and that threw a little spatter into the works. One, I ended up having a lot of time off, and two, I'm fighting Jason Miller. Is he the guy by beating him to get a title shot? No, I don't think so. He's a veteran, he's been around the sport, all the rest of it, but he's not in the top ten and I don't think he's going to be."

Bisping thinks he's still being overlooked and underrated, and because he doesn't think Miller is taking him as seriously as an opponent, he believes he's going to deliver a lot of punishment to "Mayhem."

"He's underestimating me, just like all opponents, the same run of events, the same things get said in every fight," Bisping opined. "'Oh Bisping he's not good at this, he's not good at that' and they have a different opinion by the time they're checking out of the hospital after the fight. Six of my last seven opponents, that's where they went to the hospital, and Jason Miller's going to be no different.

"I hope he hasn't booked an after party for after the fight cause if he does, he's going to be spending it with a couple of nurses. I saw an interview he did recently where he said he's going to knock me out and submit me in the first round. I've got to say I did laugh quite heartily when I read that. That's what I said on the show when he said ‘I'm going to knock you out', I said when have you knocked anyone out? When's the last time I got submitted? Never. I'm looking forward to kicking his ass, can't wait."

Penick's Analysis: Bisping needs this to be a statement fight. He desperately wants to get to a title shot in the middleweight division, but with a number of fighters in front of him he still hasn't gotten a statement win to stake his claim. If he somehow stopped Miller, who hasn't been stopped in five years, that would be a big statement, and be the best way to move himself up the line in the division. Regardless, he needs to win, and if he doesn't it will make for a major setback, and may derail any hope he has of getting to a title fight in his UFC career. Also, with how heavily he's talking up his chances in this fight, losing would be a massive failure on his part.

[Michael Bisping art by Grant Gould (c) MMATorch.com]