UFC main event: Chris Weidman says Luke Rockhold will beat Michael Bisping in grudge match

UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman was centre of attention at the press conference for the Michael Bisping-Luke Rockhold main event fight.

UFC FIGHT PASS main event will be a five-round clash of middleweight contenders, as Luke Rockhold meets heated rival Michael Bisping. UFC press conference at the Sydney Opera House Marquee.

CHRIS Weidman, perhaps for the first time in his life, never saw the ambush coming.

Hidden away at the back of Thursday’s UFC press conference, the middleweight champion somehow thought he could stay unseen throughout the wonderful slanging match that continues to be Michael Bisping versus Luke Rockhold.

Yeah, right.

With formalities just about done, the New York native was suddenly set upon by a hungry press gallery asking ... well, which of these two is moving a step closer to your gold strap?

“Aaaah,” he said, drawing out his pause, “I’m gunna have to say Rockhold wins this fight.’’

To which Bisping shouted: “Of course, you Yankees are going to stick together. You need all the help you can get.

“You know, we started this s--t and we’ll finish this s--t. So shut up Chris this is our press conference.”

Afterwards, Weidman went further.

UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman at the press conference at the Sydney Opera House.

“I think Luke Rockhold wins in the third,’’ he told The Daily Telegraph. “But I can also see him finishing much quicker than that.

“Obviously having flown halfway around the world to be here, I’d like to see it go the distance. “But Luke wins this fight.”

For Rockhold, that has long been a given.

Indeed, rather than simply repeating his claims of a first round KO, the tough Californian tightened his prediction even further.

“First, I’ll hit him with a right hook,” he said of how the Allphones Arena main event ends. “Then a left kick to his body, loosen him up a little.

“Then back to the head ... that will finish it.”

Weidman, for his part, said Bisping was still some chance, but only if the outspoken Englishman could frustrate his opponent.

The fighter added that while he couldn’t see either fighter getting a title shot with a win in Sydney, “it will probably happen down the track”.

Originally published as UFC main event: Chris Weidman says Luke Rockhold will beat Michael Bisping in grudge match