Bisping: Fred Flintstone looking Hendo will probably take PEDs

UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping is defending his belt for the first time vs. Dan Henderson, at UFC 204, on Oct. 8, in front of a hometown crowd in Manchester, England. It will be a rematch of their UFC 100 fight, which is widely hailed as the greatest KO in UFC history. Bisping discussed the fight on his SiriusXM Rush radio show, The Countdown with Michael Bisping, saying he believes Hendo will be taking PEDs.

It is a particular concern of Bisping’s, as until someone dies, he is the fighter most demonstrably hurt by the use of performance enhancing drugs in MMA. The Count lost to Hendo at UFC 100, who was legally on PEDs at the time. He lost to Wanderlei Silva, who literally ran from a PED test, and was suspended out of North America. He lost to Chael Sonnen, who was legally on PEDs, sort of, and then was suspended for two years and retired. And he lost to Vitor Belfort who was on PEDs legally, sort of.

Bisping also said Hendo looks like Fred Flintstone.

“Let me tell you this, lightning does not strike twice,” said Bisping, as transcribed by Jed Meshew for MMAFighting. “It struck once the first time, it will not strike twice. There will be no TRT, no drugs, no steroids, no performance-enhancing drugs. Dan Henderson I challenge you to announce to me at the press conference that you will not take any performance-enhancing drugs, that if USADA show up on any day, any time they can test you, because I think he’s gonna cheat. I think he’s gonna go out there and have some sneaky PEDs because he’s gonna think, ‘Well screw it. If I get suspended, so what? I’m retiring anyway.’

“I think he’s gonna juice because if he gets popped, he’s just gonna get suspended. That is no consequence to him and people will remember that he retired as champion even though it would be a No Contest. If he was to get the win, he could still retire saying, ‘I just beat the world champion.'”

“But then again, the problem with that is if he was to go out there and do that, with USADA, – and I’m gonna make sure this guy is thoroughly tested – and if he was to test positive, then the fight would be off. So that is the only deterrent I think. Because he’s gonna earn a lot of money for this fight and if he wants to collect on that paycheck, he’s got to make it to the octagon. So he’s playing with fire but we’ve seen it time and time again, people do play with fire even though they know USADA might turn up…People do make these stupid f***ing mistakes. Dan Henderson being a weird version of bloody Fred Flintstone – that’s what I’m gonna nickname him, he looks like Fred Flintstone – he will probably make that mistake.”

“I plan on putting a beating on Henderson that people will never forget in a long, long time.”