Middleweight contender Gegard Mousasi got the 40th win of his career at UFC 204, after completely dominating Vitor Belfort. Headlining the card, was Michael Bisping, who after defending his title, called out and insulted four fighters in the division.
One of those middleweights he didn’t mention is Mousasi, and he believes people have been taking him for granted for a while now.
“I think I’m underrated throughout my whole career,” Mousasi said after UFC 204. “I don’t know, maybe I’m from Holland and people don’t care. I don’t know, maybe I’ll throw bottles on someone’s head, and people are going to start noticing me.”
“If I fight Michael Bisping with his performance tonight — I like Michael Bisping but you guys know I would beat him. I would beat him. I would jab his face the whole night. Easy!”
Mousasi referenced McGregor with the bottle throwing incident at UFC 202, and fielded a question about the featherweight champion.
“McGregor is good for the sport, but uhh. But what is it?” Mousasi says about the reason for his popularity. “You had Muhammad Ali, who was a hero, great boxer. He did a lot, did big things. But now you have (Floyd) Mayweather and Conor McGregor (saying) ‘I have money! I have money!’ and everybody loves it! I don’t know. That sells. People are stupid, what can I say?”
“They don’t know who’s the real fighter or not. They just like to see expensive stuff on Instagram or something. I don’t know.”
Mousasi, who has been usually soft-spoken, has started to be more vocal as of late, and did so once again with these recent statements.
“Not satisfied on where I am right now,” Mousasi said about the reason for speaking out. “Frustration.”
He called out Anderson Silva after the win over Belfort, but he says a part of him doubts he gets that match up or one against other big names.
“They wouldn’t give GSP against me. He has nothing to gain. Even Anderson (Silva) wouldn’t take the fight. Why would he risk to fight me when he can fight GSP or some other guy?”
Mousasi believes that being constantly underrated and somewhat underappreciated by fans might leave him out of big name bouts, but he believes he still eventually gets to the top of the division.
“My turn will come. My turn will come,” he said about getting a title fight. “Either they give me an easy fight — Uriah Hall. Or tough fights, one of those top 4 guys.”
“I’ll be champion now with USADA.”
Watch Mousasi’s press conference video below: