McCarthy Send Another Shot Across Bispings Bow

Charles "Chainsaw" McCarthy continued the heated vocal exchange with Michael "The Count" Bisping ahead of their imminent UFC match up, with his latest bout of comments.

"I have very little regard for that guy," McCarthy said, speaking of Bisping "I can't wait to go in there and get my arm around his neck. It's going to be a cool experience. I hope to put him to sleep before he decides to tap."

The verbal war started with McCarthy writing off his British opponent as "average".

“He’s very average. I’m not impressed or excited by anything he does. His wrestling isn’t good, his striking isn’t good and his BJJ isn’t good – he’s just an average fighter with a big name because the UFC is big in England.”

But "Captain Miserable", the nickname gifted him by The Ultimate Fighter Coach Matt Serra, had yet more to say.

“I think I will be able to out-jab and outstrike Bisping easily. I think I’ll take him down and submit him in a couple of rounds."

Not one to lay down when faced with comments of that nature, Bisping lashed back, saying “He’s made the biggest mistake of his life by shooting his mouth off. He completely disrespected me in his interview..."

“I’ve gone out of my way to be respectful to him during the build-up, refusing to bash him in interviews, but I am an emotional guy and, even though I’ll do my talking in the Octagon, I’m not shy of getting into the smack-talking.”

The back-and-forth argument was fired up again with a more recent interview with McCarthy who also commented on Bispings' fighting style.

"He's a decent kickboxer, real arrogant, and, you know -- not much else, really. He's gonna get choked out April 19."

But while not training out of the American Top Team gym, McCarthy is teaching and expanding his own ATT affiliate gym "McCarthy's Ultimate Self Defense". The gym, which opened in January 2007, has grown from around 40 to 130 students in the last year alone.

The most notable aspect of this fight, is that McCarthy hasn't been in the Octagon since he tapped out Gideon Ray with an armbar at the TUF4 finale. This was due to a serious knee injury which saw tears to his ACL (Anterior Cruciate Ligament), LCL (Lateral Collateral Ligament) and Meniscus.

McCarthy shrugged this injury off, as shortly after returning to training he was awarded a BJJ Brown Belt under Ricardo Liborio.

"I know his game, we can go 15 minutes on the feet and he won't hurt me. But if we get it on the ground, he will never last 15 minutes on the ground with me. So I don't care much what people say, you know?"

McCarthy and Bisping square off at UFC 83: Serra vs St Pierre 2 on Saturday April 19th 2008, which will also see the return of Matt "The Terror" Serra defending his Welterweight title to the Canadian Georges "Rush" St Pierre.