Under different circumstances, Michael Bisping is confident he’d have become friends with Jorge Masvidal rather than rivals.
Prior to his retirement, the former middleweight champion engaged in a nasty war of words with Masvidal that nearly turned physical on a couple of occasions. Just before his title fight against Georges St-Pierre in 2017, Bisping had an altercation with Masvidal at the host hotel where the fighters had to be physically separated before potentially coming to blows.
This past weekend while working as part of the broadcast team at UFC 246, there were no signs of that bad blood as Bisping showered Masvidal with compliments, a far cry from the relationship they shared just a few years ago.