UFC Middleweight Champion Michael Bisping has been critical in the past of the steroid usage of Yoel Romero, but this coming spring, Bisping will be defending his championship against Romero.
"So a couple of days ago Dana calls me up... and he's like ‘Mike, January 20. Anaheim. You vs. Yoel Romero.' I said well to be honest Dana I've been getting injections on my knee. Now I'm not saying no to Yoel because believe it or not, after beating Weidman like that, yeah I do fancy it. I was hoping Weidman would win. I always wanted to fight Weidman, more out of respect really. Even though we've went back and forth and talked sh-t, I've never really had too much against him. It was more kind of a comedy thing from where I was concerned. But I did want to fight him. That said, Yoel beat him and fair enough I guess. In the fight before, even though he tested positive, he beat Jacare, he beat Weidman, and he beat of bunch of no marks before that. So I guess that would be the fight. Listen, I've had three fights this year. It was only four weeks ago I had a war with Dan Henderson. I want to enjoy Christmas with my family. So January 20 ain't going to happen. I'm not physically or mentally ready to jump into a training camp right now. That fight, that date is nine weeks away. I'd have to start training next week and I'd have to be in training camp all the way through Christmas. My family is coming out for Christmas. I'm planning on having some downtime. I think I've earned that. I've got a couple injuries I need to heal up. They said, 'okay, so what time are we looking at?' and I said, 'sometime this spring. Some time this spring, 100%. Book the fight.' He goes, 'Okay cool. Let me have a look at the calendar, see what dates are available, see what locations, I'll get in touch and we'll figure something out. So it's looking like that will be the next fight, unless something else transpires in some other situation. But it's like looking me vs. Yoel sometime in the spring,” said Bisping on The Rundown.
Despite the fact that Bisping will be fighting Romero in a few months, that hasn’t stopped the middleweight champion from talking about Romero’s steroid usage even more.
"All credit to Romero, all credit. He timed it nicely and he landed a good flying knee. I don't plan on headbutting Yoel Romero's knee. So therefore that won't work. And as I said, he's 5' 2" so he won't be able to jump up and flying knee me in the face - well, depending on how many steroids he's taken that year. Because let's not forget, he did just come back from serving a steroid suspension. And he can say whatever he wants but listen, that guy is on steroids. We all know it. It's as simple as that. But will I fight him? God d*mn f*cking right I'll fight him...I've fought a lot of cheaters of the years and my stance on that stuff is strong as you know, but if that's the fight that's gonna go down - I don't want people to be like, 'he's just ducking Romero. He's ducking Romero' because that's not the case at all. I'm not ducking Romero so f*ck it. If that's the circumstances, that's the circumstances. But I want very, very stringent testing throughout camp. I want him to be tested pretty much every week on a random day,” said Bisping.
Bisping also says that when he defeats Romero, there can be nobody who can challenge his legacy any further.
"If I go out there and beat Yoel Romero then you can't deny any of my achievements. There are some assholes still out there who say, 'he got lucky against Rockhold and he picked on an old guy against Henderson.' I want to fight the No. 1 contender. I want to,” Bisping said.
Bisping last defended the title against Dan Henderson at UFC 199, while Yoel Romero just defeated Chris Weidman at UFC 205.
