Michael Bisping har svarat på Justin Gaethjes anklagelser om att han var partisk vid UFC 286.
Michael Bisping bemöter kritiken från Justin Gaethje
Efter att besegrat Rafael Fiziev under lördagens delade huvudmatch i London såg Gaethje sin vän och lagkamrat Kamaru Usman utmana welterviktsmästaren Leon Edwards i huvudmatchen.
Gaethje tog dock illa upp när det kom till experkommentatorn Michael Bispings sätt att analysera matchen. Amerikanen stämplade brittens insats som oprofessionell då han ansåg att Bisping favoriserade sin landsman Edwards som besegrade Usman via majoritetsdomslut.
Igår valde Bisping att kommentera kritiken via sin YouTube-kanal där han var förstående mot Gaethje som han anser visar lojalitet mot Usman:
Justin’s just being a loyal friend and a loyal teammate. When you’re watching a fight and you want your friend, your teammate to win, the good stuff that they do, in your mind, is emphasized. It is amplified. It is a bigger deal than what it is. And the stuff that the opponent does to your friend, you dismiss it. … That’s just the human mind. That’s how we work. When someone that we respect, when someone that’s our friend that we’re supporting, when they’re doing well, we amplify it in our mind. When anything bad happens, we play it down.
So Justin firmly believes in his head that Kamaru won that fight. And because I said on the microphone afterwards, ‘Well, Leon clearly won that fight,’ which I thought that he did in a close fight – in a close fight. All the rounds were close. Leon didn’t smoke him in any of the rounds, but I thought generally Kamaru might’ve had one or two rounds. Maybe one, maybe two. I’d have to watch it again. But listen, Leon won the fight. But all rounds were close, and Justin is just being a good teammate.
Inget personligt mot Usman
I slutändan står dock Bisping fast vid sin åsikt om Edwards seger över Usman och pekar då även på poängdomarna bedömning samt den allmänna opinionen bland de som tittade på matchen. Det var alltså inget personligt mot Usman enligt Bisping:
Listen, I’m not ripping on Kamaru. It was a very close fight, but Leon clearly won in my opinion, and the judges echoed that sentiment. And I think generally, universally everybody agrees. I haven’t seen any outcry of robbery or anything like that.
Bisping har försvarats av sina kommentatorskollegor Jon Anik och Daniel Cormier.
