Bickering Comes Easy for Silva and Bisping

It might just be “The Axe Murderer” grinding his weapon for battle, but Wanderlei Silva and Michael Bisping are settling into their adversarial roles easily in advance of their featured middleweight bout at UFC 110 this Saturday inside the Acer Arena in Sydney, Australia.

Silva fired the first shot when he concluded his opening remarks at a pre-fight press conference held Thursday in Sydney with a personal message for Bisping.

“I’m going to kick your ass,” said the former Pride 205-pound champion, who makes his middleweight debut on Saturday.

Bisping, who won the third season of “The Ultimate Fighter,” told reporters he was stumped by Silva’s coldness toward him.

“It’s funny. I haven’t said two words to the guy, but a lot of animosity has seemed to have built up,” said Bisping. “Right from the start, I saw blogs on the Internet saying various things…he seems to think I’ve been a bit disrespectful towards him. I’ve got nothing but respect for Wanderlei.”

The 31-year-old Bisping called Silva an “ambassador” for the sport, but said he didn’t feel the same reciprocation of respect coming back to him. Bisping vowed to “go out there on Saturday night and take my respect.”

Bisping then interjected himself when Silva was addressed by a local reporter citing comments the Brit had supposedly made over Silva’s spotty 1-3 record since returning to the UFC in December 2007.

“You do need to win fights, Wanderlei,” interrupted Bisping. “You haven’t been doing much of that lately.”

Silva told Bisping to “Shut up,” before continuing on with a tame answer.

But when asked what he didn’t like about Bisping, Silva was a bit more pointed.

“I don’t know what the reason (is),” said Silva. “It’s not just me. Everybody doesn’t like him.”

Viewers in the U.S. particularly took offense to Bisping’s assured turn as a rival coach to Dan Henderson on “The Ultimate Fighter 9” last year. Henderson knocked out Bisping in their eventual pairing that July, though the Clitheroe, England, native earned a second-round comeback victory against Denis Kang in November.

Adversely, the 34-year-old Silva is a sentimental favorite among fans for his legacy of violent victories in Japan. However, taxing defeats to Chuck Liddell and Quinton "Rampage" Jackson prompted Silva to drop down a division. A victory against Bisping would put Silva a beat off from an even record in the promotion. A loss would take Silva to 1-4 in the UFC, though from UFC President Dana White’s remarks, it doesn’t seem like Silva would face termination.

White weighed Silva’s value not by his record, but by his methods.

“Watch what happens when Wanderlei Silva walks into this arena on Sunday morning,” said White. “They love Wanderlei and they love Wanderlei because of the way he fights. He’s balls to the wall, all guts and no glory. He wants to go out there and put on a good show and people love him for it.”