Michael Bisping jumps to return for fight against Anderson Silva

After spending much of his career lobbying for a fight against Anderson Silva, Ultimate Fighting Championship middleweight veteran Michael Bisping appeared to cool of the notion last year.

Not only had Silva lost his belt, the longtime champion had tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs both before and after his last fight against Nick Diaz last year.

Bisping, still frustrated by what he believes are tainted losses to Chael Sonnen, Dan Henderson and Vitor Belfort, indicated he was done fighting opponents he feels were cheating.

But when an offer was actually made last month to finally step in the cage with Silva, Bisping jumped at the opportunity.

"A while ago, I did say to myself, 'I'm sick of this. I'm over it. I'm over fighting all these people that have an unfair advantage in the recovery and in their training," Bisping said on a conference call announcing his fight against Silva in the main event of a UFC card in London on Feb. 27. "I thought if anybody has a history with performance-enhancing drugs, then I'm not going to fight them. There's plenty of other people. But then when I started hearing the rumors about the Anderson Silva fight, I started to think about it. Would I take it or wouldn't I?

"I've got to say, regardless of what happened, it's still Anderson Silva and it is a bucket list fight. It is certainly somebody that I always wanted to face and so from that reason I'm willing to forego that and we will meet in February."

Silva, who had been the middleweight champion from 2006 until 2013, returned from a gruesome broken leg to defeat Diaz by unanimous decision in January 2015. He was suspended one year after tests conducted both before the bout and on fight night came back positive for steroids.

Silva unsuccessfully argued the results were due to tainted sexual-performance drugs.

Bisping, a perennial contender who has never received a UFC title shot, believes Silva's transgressions are being overlooked.

"We're all chasing the dream. All fighters have a dream of being the champion and you've got to do it through hard work. The fact of the matter is Anderson Silva tested positive for not one, not two, but three banned substances inside his body and whilst I respect him as a fighter, I've got to say I lost a lot of respect for him for that and this fight represents me beating all of these people that want to cheat," he said. " I have never taken a performance-enhancing drug in my life and anybody that does should be ashamed and to call yourself a martial artist. But to take performance-enhancing drugs is the biggest contradiction you could ever make and to be honest, he should be ashamed of himself and I feel that this should be talked about more. I want to be tested throughout the camp, come and check my blood right now.

"You can get me to pee in a cup every day of this fight camp and I hope that happens and I hope Anderson is tested many times because he should be tested many times because he failed the test not once, not twice, but three times."

Silva was on the conference call during Bisping's rant, maintained his innocence.

"I don't have anything to really respond back to him. Basically what it boils down to is that I took a supplement that was contaminated. Inside the octagon there's no way to really lie in this sport. I've been fighting my whole career, never tested positive and my conscious is clear," Silva retorted through a translator. "I've never purposely took any sort of banned substances. I made an error by taking a substance that was contaminated but my conscious is clean. I know that I've never cheated and, you know, at the end of the day in this sport whoever is the best prepared is going to show that night. So, you know, I really have nothing else to respond to Michael about this."

The event, which also includes a middleweight bout between Gegard Mousasi and Thales Leites, will stream exclusively online on UFC Fight Pass.

MAYWEATHER ON MCGREGOR, RACE — Boxing superstar Floyd Mayweather Jr. claims he doesn't know a whole lot about UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor.

That didn't stop Mayweather from weighing in on the public perception of the Irish star and what it says about society.

"I don't really know the McGregor guy, never seen him fight," Mayweather told fighthype.com. "They say he talks a lot of trash and people praise him for it, but when I (do) it, they say I'm cocky and arrogant. So biased!

"Like I said before, all I'm saying is this, I ain't racist at all, but I'm telling you racism still exists."

Mayweather was supporting a point he had previously made in the interview about how Ronda Rousey became a massive superstar with crossover mainstream appeal based on a shorter period of dominance in her sport than Layla Ali, who Mayweather pointed out is also "drop-dead gorgeous."

HOLM SIGNS EXTENSION — UFC women's bantamweight champion Holly Holm has turned her stunning knockout of Rousey into a big payday.

Holm signed a multiyear contract extension with the UFC, a deal first reported by ESPN. The pact was signed while Holm was in Las Vegas for UFC 195 over the weekend. No details of the deal were released, as is typical of contracts with the organization.

UFC officials have also not announced Holm's next fight. While UFC president Dana White has indicated he would like to see Holm defend the belt in a rematch against Rousey at UFC 200 in July, the champion has been vocal about taking a fight sooner, even if it is against a different opponent.

There is growing speculation Holm could defend the belt in the spring against top contender Miesha Tate, but White said Saturday there is nothing to announce at this point.

Contact reporter Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com or 702-224-5509. Follow him on Twitter: @adamilllvrj