there\u2019s something weird going on<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\nDuring an appearance on The Ariel Helwani Show last week, Hearn accused Bisping of being too close to UFC to speak honestly about fighter pay.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are people that are on the payroll,\u201d Hearn said. \u201cThese are people who have been suppressed themselves, and these are people who don\u2019t have any backbone about them. Michael Bisping should be ashamed of what is being proposed to Tom Aspinall to be in a fight like Ciryl Gane with that amount of money that is in the pot. He is a fighter. He should stand up for what\u2019s right for fighters.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo what are you saying, Bisping? \u2018Do as you\u2019re told, shut up, take your money. That\u2019s all you\u2019re worth?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Hearn then challenged Bisping to debate him.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s $60 million in the pot,\u201d Hearn said. \u201cBe quiet? You\u2019re getting three percent of the pot. You\u2019re the fighter. You\u2019re putting your health on the line, you\u2019re the talent, you\u2019re the reason this organization is what it is, and Bisping should be ashamed of himself for that.<\/p>\n
\u201cI keep saying to Bisping, \u2018Sit down with me, live, and we\u2019ll have a debate about it,\u2019 and he\u2019ll never do it because he knows he can\u2019t say certain things.\u201d<\/p>\n
Well, Bisping has now responded.<\/p>\n
And while he is not interested in doing an online spectacle, he said he is more than willing to speak with Hearn face-to-face.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe wants to have a debate? I\u2019m not having a debate online, but I\u2019m very happy, next time I\u2019m in London, to sit down face-to-face, man-to-man, and have a conversation like that,\u201d Bisping said on his podcast. \u201cOK, Eddie? Let\u2019s see if he keeps the same energy.<\/p>\n
\u201cEddie Hearn was talking s\u2014t about me and about Felder too, really, but he only named me,\u201d Bisping continued. \u201cHe said he wants a debate. He said, \u2018I should be ashamed because I don\u2019t want Tom Aspinall to get paid.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Bisping then pushed back hard on the idea that he does not support fighters getting paid.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy should I be ashamed? I have no idea the money that Tom is getting paid,\u201d Bisping said. \u201cI\u2019m not a part of that. All I ever said, and I think anyone with half an ounce of intelligence can see it, is that Eddie Hearn is muddying the waters with something between him and Dana White and his perceived war and beef that he has with Dana. That\u2019s all I said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI never mentioned a goddamn word about his compensation,\u201d Bisping continued. \u201cI hope Tom Aspinall gets paid s\u2014tloads. I hope you can go out there and get him a contract for $30 million per fight. It\u2019s no skin off my nose. That\u2019s what I want for all fighters. What the f\u2014k are you talking about, Eddie?\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Bisping, his original point had nothing to do with Aspinall\u2019s paycheck. It was about the timing of Hearn\u2019s involvement and the public uncertainty surrounding Aspinall\u2019s return.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just said it\u2019s a bit weird that he\u2019s not fighting, and Eddie Hearn is now managing him,\u201d Bisping said. \u201cWe all know that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bisping then closed by calling Hearn\u2019s criticism nonsense.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s absolute horse s\u2014t what Eddie Hearn is saying,\u201d Bisping said. \u201cAnd he wants to have a debate? Eddie, all you little s\u2014ts out there, I don\u2019t want you to get it twisted: I care about fighters. We care deeply about this sport, and this is why we are commentators. There\u2019s nothing wrong with that.\u201d<\/p>\n
For now, Aspinall has been cleared to return to sparring<\/a> and is targeting a return to the Octagon later this year, with the Gane rematch still sitting as the obvious fight.<\/p>\nBut the biggest fight around Aspinall right now might not be inside the cage.<\/p>\n
It might be the increasingly messy one between Hearn, White and everyone caught in the middle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Michael Bisping has heard enough. Boxing promoter and Matchroom Sport chairman Eddie Hearn has spent the past few…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":719174,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,43957,786,40762,785,85,1396,179146,355513],"class_list":["post-771067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing-news-results","tag-fighting","tag-latest-ufc-mma-news","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc-news","tag-ufc-on-paramount","tag-ufc-mma-social-media-videos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=771067"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771067\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/719174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=771067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=771067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=771067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}