It’s no secret that there’s no love lost between Yoel Romero and UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping. But at UFC 213, while Romero was facing Robert Whittaker for the UFC interim middleweight title, Bisping sat cageside. As the cameras cut to him, Bisping ripped up the Cuban flag and tossed it at Romero. It was a bit of heelish escalation that would have played perfectly in promos for their eventual title clash; except, Romero lost a decision to Whittaker, withdrawing himself from title contention.

Don’t tell that to Romero though. Recently, Romero has been adamantly calling out Bisping with videos posted to his Instagram, burning the Union Jack and calling for Bisping to come meet him in Cuba for disrespecting his flag. On Monday, he posted a video of himself in Cuba, calling for a fight with Bisping, asking Dana to give him the fight, and at various points, standing on or having Cuban fans stomp on the Union Jack.

So Tuesday on his Believe You Me podcast, Bisping responded to Romero’s videos and callouts, saying Romero has “gone off the deep end” and needs to “man up” and accept his loss.

“It’s awesome. I love it. I love it. He’s going around getting people dancing on British flags, he’s burning pictures of me, he’s stepping off the plane, he’s doing videos when he gets off the plane, he’s got loads of Cubans all standing there saluting and talking s**t and chanting, he’s in cars talking s**t - he’s gone off the deep end,” Bisping said.

“Yoel is out of his god d**n mind. I’ve got to say, I love it because unlike some of those videos, it’s awesome. . . Yoel, get over it bud. You just lost the No. 1 contender fight. It’s as simple as that. And you know what, it’s just so typical of Yoel Romero. He can’t man up. He can’t accept it. He’s gotta cheat. He’s got no honor. He’s gotta take steroids.”

Bisping has repeated accused Romero of being a steroid user. Romero never failed a drug testing during his Olympic wrestling career, but did fail a USADA drug test, a failure which was later ruled to be caused by a tainted supplement.

Bisping continued his response, saying that Romero lost because he didn’t have the heart to win that he needed to “get a f**king grip” and stop calling for a fight with the champion after losing.

“Listen, I was in No. 1 contender match ups - and let’s not kid ourselves, an interim title fight is a No. 1 contender matchup. That’s all it is because there was no need for a f**king interim title fight, but whatever. The UFC wanted to do one so I said sure, do it, it’ll pump up the fight and make it even bigger when it does happen. But he lost! He lost fair and square. As I said, he laid on the floor, he gave up like a little b**ch that he is because he didn’t have the heart and he let the fight slip away and he lost that fight. But still he can’t accept it. Now he’s still trying to bypass the victory and call me out still.

“I’ve lost No. 1 contender match ups. If I’d have won them, I’d have fought for the title. But what did I do? Did I go to Instagram and call out the champion still and this and that? No, I didn’t. You know what you do? You accept it like a man. Whatever it is in life, it doesn’t go your way, you weren’t successful, you couldn’t pull it off, you didn’t achieve it - you say f**k it, back to the drawing board. I’ll get them next time. You don’t go to Instagram and campaign for a fight with the champion anyway. You just lost. Hang your head in shame. Disappear to Cuba. Spend some time with your f**king family and come back and build yourself back up. That’s what you should be doing not dancing around on the Union Jack. Get a f**king grip.”

Bisping famously failed in both of his UFC middleweight title eliminator fights before winning the title as a short notice replacement when Chris Weidman pulled out of his rematch with Luke Rockhold at UFC 199.

As for what’s next for Bisping, he says it definitely won’t be a fight with Romero. Bisping says there was some talk of he and Whittaker coaching opposite one another on The Ultimate Fighter but those plans were scrapped and now he’s waiting to find out who is next. Whittaker sustained some fashion of a knee injury during his fight with Romero so if Whittaker is on the shelf recovering, Bisping says the previously planned and then scrapped fight with former UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre could be back on.

“Robert Whittaker will be my next fight unless the unimaginable happens and GSP comes up.”

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MUST-READ STORIES

Results. The Tuesday Night Contender Series awarded one contract last night.

Odds. Conor McGregor has dropped to less than a 4-1 underdog vs. Floyd Mayweather.

Plan. Paulie Malignaggi outlines a strategy for McGregor to upset Mayweather.

Spat. Demetrious Johnson says his fight with Dana White is just a “misunderstanding.”

Assault. Cody Pfister arrested on charge of assault against a family member.

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VIDEO STEW

Some free fight action, plus a huge KO.

BJJ Scout doing a brilliant breakdown of the clinch battle for Cormier-Jones 2.

Espinoza explaining why they didn’t do any more MMA vs. boxing fights for the MayGregor undercard.

Dana still repping Jon Jones as an all-time great.

Floyd Sr. saying what we all think about Skip.

T-Wood on TMZ.

TTTHS.

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LISTEN UP

Beatdown. Weekend recap, MayMac World Tour, and Cyborg-Evinger analysis.

Co-Main Event. MayMac tour, Ponzinibbio’s win, and Weidman-Gastelum analysis.

Show the Art. MayMac discussion and.... Game of Thrones?

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SOCIAL MEDIA BOUILLABAISSE

Nope. Jon wasn’t mad at all.

For real.

Congrats.

Ruthless. (Khashakyan - guy who got melted by O’Malley) is a Tarverdyan fighter).

Hopefully so.

Brilliant.

Borrachinha saying he was offered a fight with Vitor.

That’s a lot of gold.

Good work.

Khabib punching a fan who wanted him to.

He’s trying too hard.

USADA.

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FIGHT ANNOUNCEMENTS

Andre Fili (16-4) vs. Calvin Kattar (16-2); UFC 214, July 29.

Valdir Araujo (17-7) vs. Adriano Capitulino (5-1, 1 NC); Titan FC 45, Aug. 18.

Gustavo Balart (3-0) vs. Jorge Calvo (10-1); Titan FC 45, Aug. 18.

James Blair (5-0) vs. Askar Askarov (9-0); Titan FC 45, Aug. 18.

Demarques Jackson (6-1) vs. Luciano dos Santos (10-8); Titan FC 45, Aug. 18.

Steve Mowry (1-0) vs. Dustin Clements (2-0); Titan FC 45, Aug. 18.

Edwin Valenzuela (4-0) vs. Anderson Hutchinson (6-1); Titan FC 45, Aug. 18.

Isidro Rodriguez (3-0) vs. Uros Jurisic (5-0); Titan FC 45, Aug. 18.

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TODAY IN MMA HISTORY

2004: Mirko Cro Cop began the best run of his career, knocking out Shungo Oyama with punches at Pride Bushido 4.

2008: Affliction MMA held their first event, headlined by Fedor Emelianenko knocking down and choking out Tim Sylvia in 36 seconds.

That same evening, the UFC counter-programmed Affliction with UFC Fight Night 14, featuring Anderson Silva jumping up to 205 pounds where he knocked out James Irvin in 61 seconds.

2014: Conor McGregor headlined his first UFC event, knocking out Diego Brandao in the first round of UFC Fight Night 46.

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FINAL THOUGHTS

Two weeks in and Dana White’s Tuesday Night Contender Series has been excellent so far. My only gripe with it is this: Thanh Le put on a great performance that he finished with a head kick KO and still didn’t get offered a UFC contract. I mean, if having a highlight reel knockout isn’t gonna get you the call up, what is? I felt that they could have justifiably signed 5-6 guys last week and 3 of them this week. Just not really sure what the criteria is if exciting finishes aren’t gonna get you a shot in the game.

Also, I highly recommend everyone with access go watch the Real Sports from HBO last night discussing Ramzan Kadyrov and featuring one of the best journalists in the MMA business, Karim Zidan.

Take it easy and see y’all tomorrow.

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