Gegard Mousasi on hype around Floyd Mayweather, Conor McGregor: 'People are stupid'
Middleweight contender Gegard Mousasi has expressed his disenchantment with the UFC rankings and those who vote for them on plenty of occasions recently, but his new "to hell with it" attitude is still just catching on.
After defeating Vitor Belfort via second-round TKO on early Sunday morning at UFC 204 in Manchester, England, Mousasi — calling it like he sees it — said as much. When speaking about getting fans and the promotion to take more notice of him, he said it could be that he's from Hollard, or that he might have to start throwing bottles to gain attention, in clear reference to the UFC 202 press conference between Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz.
Later he was asked about his "throwing bottles" comment, and the 31-year old Mousasi let fly in his own way.
"McGregor is good for the sport, but, what is it?" he said. "You had Muhammad Ali who was a hero. He was, besides a great boxer, he did a lot, he did big things. But now that you have [Floyd] Mayweather] and you have Conor McGregor it's, '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 a real fighter or not.
"They just like to see expensive stuff on Instagram, probably, I don't know."
Mousasi has won three straight fights in the UFC, and six out of seven overall. His only loss that time was against Uriah Hall back in Sept. 2015, which he referenced as an unlucky event.
"Uriah Hall was a fluke...I'm top 5," Mousasi said. "I don't know who makes the rankings. Sherdog puts me at No. 10. Someone is sleeping there."
Mousasi mentioned that he would still be interested in a fight with former middleweight champion Anderson Silva in his next bout, or a rematch with Hall. When asked to specify his druthers, Mousasi he would prefer any of the "top four" — Chris Weidman, Luke Rockhold, Ronaldo Souza or Yoel Romero — if they weren't all booked for fights already.