Michael Bisping won’t discuss Luke Rockhold training sessions as pair end feud

Michael Bisping won't be discussing his recent training sessions with Luke Rockhold, after the pair settled their differences and became training partners in recent months.

The former UFC champions were bitter rivals while Bisping was still an active fighter, and went 1-1 in their two bouts which included the Brit's historic middleweight title win at UFC 199 in 2016.

And despite the feud between the pair, they have been seen training together in social media clips posted over the last few weeks by coaches and the fighters themselves.

Fans have likened a potential sparring match between the two to the ending scene in Rocky 3, where Rocky Balboa and Apollo Creed fought behind-closed-doors to determine who is the better boxer having each won one of their legendary bouts.

But Bisping wouldn't be drawn on what happened when the pair trained when Mirror Fighting asked him last week, saying he knows better than to restart his rivalry with the UFC light heavyweight, who is still competing.

"Last time, this whole thing started with a journalist asking a question like this," Bisping explained. "We sparred together and someone asked how it went.

"I said 'well, let's just say I'm the unofficial Strikeforce champion' and that's how the bad blood started, but I see him down the gym all the time now.

"So I'm sorry, but I'm not going to go there, I want to be respectful.

"He's a good guy, he's a great addition to the gym and he's great to have around -everything is water under the bridge now."

The pair have been working out with head coach Jason Parillo at the RCVA training centre in California, where Bisping prepared for his bout with Rockhold in June of 2016.

Who was the better fighter at their middleweight prime: Bisping or Rockhold? Comment below.

They had previously fought in Sydney towards the end of 2014, where the American got the best of his Manchester-born counterpart in a match that led him to a number one contender fight with Lyoto Machida.

He ended up winning that bout as well before defeating rival Chris Weidman on the undercard of Conor McGregor's iconic title fight with Jose Aldo in December 2015 to become middleweight champion.

After Weidman was forced to pull out of a championship rematch six months later due to a neck injury, Bisping stepped up on just 17-days notice to finally get a shot at the gold.

Despite entering as a massive 9/2 underdog, Bisping managed to land the left hook repeatedly and knock out Rockhold to become the first ever British UFC champion.

But now the pair are friendly again, with Rockhold and Bisping both posting photos of themselves laughing after training with Parillo, which garnered hundreds of thousands of likes and comments from fans delighted to see the feud resolved.

Bisping retired from the sport in 2017 after losing his belt to Georges St-Pierre and quickly being stopped by Kelvin Gastelum in his first fight back.

Rockhold, on the other hand, is still competing, and appears to be gearing up for a return to the Octagon after back-to-back knockout losses to Jan Blachowicz and Yoel Romero.

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