Being an elite MMA fighter requires an almost insane level of self belief, but it appears former UFC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz might have more than the average bear.

Cruz made an appearance on a recent episode of former UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping’s Believe You Me podcast, where the two discussed socializing sometimes after working together on FOX, and both of them revealed an interesting tidbit: Cruz and Bisping almost had their own champ vs. champ fight against each other in a bar.

“I’ve worked with Dominick for a long time over at Fox, now with the UFC as well,” Bisping said (h/t The Mac Life). “Good dude. Great guy. But me and Dominick have this weird love-hate relationship. … There’s been several times where me and Dominick, after we’ve worked at FOX we’ve gone for a couple of drinks together — he legit, and you’ve got to love him for this, he legit thinks he can kick my ass. And every time we get into a slight difference, because Dominick’s very opinionated, we often differ on opinions, and he wants to get physical. He wants to throw down.

“He does this all the time. We were once out in Hollywood — I can’t even remember. He had many shots of tequila, as did I. And something happened, and he was like, ‘You want to punch me right now. Don’t you? You want to punch me’. It was like that scene in Stepbrothers. And I’m like, ‘No”.

“And he says, ‘Go on motherf*cker. Swing a shot. By the time you swing on me, I’ll have hit you in the face six, seven times. You won’t be able to touch me’. I’m like, ‘What are you talking about Dominick, I am not going to punch you’. And then my older brother who had just got off a plane from England, who was very inebriated due to the tequila and the flight. And he’s like, ‘Woah, stop guys don’t fight’. … That’s just an average night out with me and Dominick.”

Cruz’s tells things a little differently. Though he agrees that they were both drinking and he was talking trash, according to “The Dominator,” Bisping was the one who initiated the physical stuff, and then took it out on his own brother instead.

“We were already getting at each other all day,” Cruz said. “Just kind of throwing low blows all day long on TV. We all know Bisping can dish it out but he has a hard time taking it. So, after a while – pick, pick, pick, pick, pick – we get to the bar, he has a couple of champagnes. He’s like, ‘Oh ok, I’ll have a couple of these Champagnes. I’ll be alright.’ A couple of his friends fly in from Manchester, including his brother, and when they get there, you know Michael’s happy now. Now he’s really good.

“So a couple more champagnes went down and we’re drinking, we’re having fun, chilling, and we’re getting to this area where we’re all trying to figure out what we’re going to do and Michael looks at me and I said something pretty — probably a little below the belt. And he gets a little upset and he grabs me by my shirt, crinkles it and goes, ‘Listen you little shit! I’m not going to take you talking to me like that anymore’.

“While he’s looking at me, I kind of look behind me and I’m like, ‘Are you talking to me or the guy behind me?’ And then he f*cking snaps. . .

“Then, all of a sudden, Michael Bisping’s brother comes out of nowhere and he goes, ‘Bisping, Bisping. Stop it! You’re going to get us in trouble. And Bisping just whap! Sleeps his brother in the middle of the club, just lays him out! I go, ‘Oh my God, that could have been me! Thank God I talked a little bit of sense to him because at first when he was yelling to me, I was like, ‘Go ahead, Bisping. If you want to do this, we can do this right f*cking now.’ I was like, ‘We can do this, but I promise you, you’re going to swing, you’re going to miss, we’re in a small place, you can’t see very well, I’m going to hit you 10 times before you even hit me once.’

“He kind of looks at me and he thinks about like, ‘I’ll probably kill Dominick, but at the same time, he might have a point. He could possibly do what he just said.’ But that’s when his brother stepped in and he just slept his brother rather than taking the smart direction. He gets thrown out of the club, I stay there and Bisping goes and rips it somewhere else, has a blast living his good life. That’s the end of that story.”

Bisping denied “sleeping” his brother, saying that he only gave him “a little slap” but Cruz remains adamant that it happened “100 percent.”

“Your little slap put him on his back, bro!”

The two ended their conversation by getting to the heart of the matter, with Bisping’s co-host, Luis Gomez, asking Cruz straight up if he believes he could beat up “The Count” in an actual fight.

“Abso-f**king-lutely,” Cruz concluded

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VIDEO STEW

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FIGHT ANNOUNCEMENTS

Shinya Aoki (41-8, 1 NC) vs. Ev Ting (16-4); ONE Championship, Oct. 6.

Michel Prazeres (25-2) vs. Bartosz Fabinski (14-2); UFC Buenos Aires, Nov. 17.

Devin Clark (9-2) vs. Aleksandar Rakic (10-1); UFC 231, Dec. 8

Jessica-Rose Clark (9-5, 1 NC) vs. Andrea Lee (9-2); UFC on FOX 31, Dec. 15.

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TODAY IN MMA HISTORY

2007: At WEC 30, Rob McCullough stopped Rich Crunkilton to win the lightweight title while Chase Beebe won a unanimous decision over Rani Yahya to claim the bantamweight belt. This event is also notable as the first WEC appearance of Donald Cerrone, who submitted Kenneth Alexander only to have the outcome overturned to a No Contest when Cerrone tested positive for a banned diuretic.

2014: Patricio Freire avenged his previous loss, winning a unanimous decision over Pat Curran to claim the Bellator featherweight title at Bellator 123.

2015: Demetrious Johnson dominated John Dodson in their rematch at UFC 191, successfully defending his flyweight title with a unanimous decision victory.

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FINAL THOUGHTS

A bit of house keeping before we close up shop today: I’m heading out of the country for a brief vacation starting today so The Morning Report will be handled by my esteemed colleagues here at MMAFighting. I’ll see y’all next week but until then, thanks for reading and enjoy the fights!

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EXIT POLL

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