Justin Gaethje calls Michael Bisping's UFC 286 commentary ‘unprofessional’

In the post fight press conference, Gaethje called out Bisping for his unprofessional commentary during the main event.

Published on: Mar 19, 2023, 23:08:12 IST

By Adarsh Kumar Gupta

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Justin Gaethje surpassed Rafael Fiziev by 29-28, 28-28 and 29-28 in the co-main event of UFC 286 on Saturday night. During the main event bout between Leon Edwards and Kamaru Usman, former MMA fighter Michael Bisping commentated. And several experts labelled Bisping's commentary to be biased. In the post fight press conference, Gaethje called out Bisping for his unprofessional commentary during the main event.

Interestingly Bisping and Edwards both hail from England while Gaethje is a training partner of Usman. In the main event, Edwards defeated Usman to retain the Welterweight title.

ALSO READ| UFC 286 all results: Leon Edwards retains title, Justin Gaethje wins in co-main event and more

“I thought [Usman] won the fight,” Gaethje said when asked for his thoughts on the Edwards-Usman trilogy bout.

“But I’m probably as biased as the judges. Certainly not as biased as Michael Bisping, who shouldn’t have been nowhere near a microphone during that fight. It sucks,” he added.

Gaethje was asked by media persons if he felt that commentators shouldn’t be assigned to bouts featuring friends and teammates. On the matter, Gaethje declined to share his opinion.

“It’s not my call,” Gaethje said. “I just thought it was very unprofessional.”

Gaethje's winning moment was mired in confusion as the ring announcer Bruce Buffer read the scores by one of the judges with no name attached to it. Buffer read a 29-28 Gaethje score first, then a second 29-28 score with no name attached to it, and then the 28-28 score before announcing Gaethje as the winner. The Highlight reflected on the confusing moment.

“The way that he announced it was very weird. He said 29-28 Gaethje and then he said 29-28 and didn’t follow with a name, so I was like, ‘What the f*** is going on?’ but then I heard 28-28. I knew that I won that fight. I wouldn’t have done that backflip if I wasn’t 99 percent sure that I won that fight,” said Gaethje.

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