Keith and Rashad were on the series of the Ultimate Fighter before I was. They beat me to the UFC by one series of TUF, that’s it. They are both doing very well and delivered when their time came to step up. Now it is my turn to step up and show what I’ve got.
Rashad starts as the favourite in a lot of people’s minds, but I love challenges.
I am prepared for the hardest, toughest fight of my entire career. I am expecting nothing else but war when I get to New Jersey - don’t “Count” me out!
GRANADA GRUMBLES The sport continues to grow over here in the UK faster and faster. Just a couple of weeks ago the UFC arranged for Granada News from ITV (network TV in the UK) to come to the Wolf’s Lair to watch me train.
ITV sent a young reporter to the gym to learn more about the sport, and to be fair to him, he came with a very open mind, asked some great questions and seemed extremely interested in the grappling aspect of the sport.
In front of the cameras, I did my best to demonstrate a few BJJ holds – triangle, armbar etc – and explaining how and why the holds work. ITV left the gym extremely happy with the footage and we were all looking forward to a very positive piece.
Before they left they said what they’d got on camera would go a long way to help kill some of the old clichés about “human cockfighting” that some people in the mainstream media still have.
However, a lot of that rolling footage never saw the light of day as the editor of the news programme felt that showing BJJ moves would “glorify violence”.
Even though they showed some great footage of other aspects of MMA training – me working the pads and heavy bags, things like that – and showed an interview with myself and UFC UK Division President Marshall Zelaznik, it is a little disappointing that this kind of thing still happens.
It is especially strange considering that, the very evening before they came to the gym, ITV news had run a story on boxing showing people getting punched on the very same show.
It is all part of the education process, I guess. We will get there, but a big part of the process is MMA fans writing in to their local TV station and newspapers asking to see MMA covered. Fighter or fan, we’re all ambassadors for our sport.
Until next week, check out my website www.bisping.tv where you can watch training footage and get all the latest info on my camp.
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