Michael Bisping's next fight could be Mark Muñoz but the match is outside of the UFC ring. "The Count" is extending an invitation to the "Filipino Werecking Machine" in a sparring match but he also added that he won't back down should the UFC match them.
The fighters were scheduled to face each other at UFC Fight Night 30 in September 2013 but an eye injury kept "The Count" in the sidelines. Instead, the newly minted middleweight Lyoto Machida faced and defeated Mark Muñoz
Michael Bisping's next fight was then with hard-hitting Tim Kennedy at The Ultimate Fighter Nations Finale last April. Unfortunately for "The Count," he was dominated the entire fight as Kennedy took him down at will and attacked from the top for the entire five rounds where he lost via unanimous decision.
It was then when he realized that his wrestling skills needed sharpening up. This has led him to extend an invite to train with one of 185-pound division's best wrestlers: Mark Muñoz.
"It's one thing sitting there talking the talk; you've got to walk the walk," Bisping said in an interview with MMAWeekly.com. "My last fight didn't go as planned, so I'm very eager to get back in there and correct that."
Mark Muñoz runs the Reign Training Center in Lake Forest, CA, where other UFC fighters like Uriah Hall, Brendan Schaub, and Patrick Cummins train. This sense of camaraderie and teamwork is what made Michael Bisping to follow suit.
"I had great coaches, but you gotta have people hands on, sparring partners, wrestling partners, jiu-jitsu guys, killers in the gym trying to take your head off," Bisping continued. "That's how you prepare for a fight. That side of things was lacking, and that's what kind of brought me down to Reign."
With regards to Michael Bisping's next fight, "The Count" is open to all possibilities. After all, the UFC is about competition and it means stepping up to the plate and fighting even if it is against a training partner.
Michael Bisping and Mark Muñoz may have become new teammates but "The Count" is not closing his doors on the possibility of them fighting.
"If the UFC matches us up, I'll be stepping aside," Bisping said. "But I'm certainly not going to say, no we train with each other now; certainly not, certainly not."
