News
23/06/09 - Exclusive report and pictures: 'Fearless' Bisping training for Hendo fight
Michael Bisping recently relocated to Las Vegas to prepare for his fight with Dan Henderson at UFC 100 on July 11th, so Fighters Only thought we would drop in on a training session at the UFC Gym (in Zuffa HQ) to find out what he is up to.
As might be expected, the Wolfslair middleweight is working extensively on his wrestling and has been training with Phil Baroni and Zach Light, who is Quinton 'Rampage' Jackson's wrestling coach and who has joined the Wolfslair coaching staff.
Gary Alexander, Fighters Only's man in Las Vegas, took the pictures and said Bisping "looked good" and "was working hard in there".
"He looks aggressive and doesn't seem to have any worries. He is very confident and says he is fearless of Henderson," he added. "Bisping says its the best training camp he has ever had and feels that all is well. He feels he is peaking at the right time."
We also caught up with Bisping shortly before he left the UK, to ask him about his time as a TUF coach and his thoughts on the Henderson fight.
Asked if he had failed to get inside Henderson's head during filming of the series, he said: "I don't know if I failed to get inside his head; I think I definitely might have pulled that one off. But you know, he is a professional. Dan is cool calm and collected, typical Californian attitude. He is little older than me, maybe a little maturer, but I was just trying to have a bit of fun with it.
"You see a lot of stuff on the forums about me talking smack on the show, but I wasn't really doing that. I think if I am honest it was the Americans who were doing most of it, I was just having a laugh with my cheeky chappie northern sense of humour. I think they just need to not be so touchy and sensitive - I'm only busting your balls!"
As far as coaching a UK team to double success (Pearson and Wilks won their respective weight categories) he said: "I think its gone great".
"I think I did a great job as a coach. Yeah there's one or two things I would change, we all make mistakes along the way and I let my guard down here and there, like when I missed Dean's fight. But on the whole I feel I did a good job, and the guys on the team worked really hard," he explained.
"I could not have asked for a better team, I have said that many times. I was impressed with all of them, I don't think it would be fair to any of them to single one of them out [as a standout], every single one put their heart and soul into it."
John Joe O'Regan
john.fightersonly@gmail.com
Photos by Gary Alexander
Attachments:
- There are no attachments for this article
