UFC: Michael Bisping believes Anderson Silva is tarnishing his legacy

Middleweight champion Michael Bisping has criticized Anderson Silva's performance at UFC 208, stating that he disrespected everybody.

Silva defeated Derek Brunson in what was a controversial unanimous decision win, marking his first win in the UFC in nearly five years. However, despite the win, Silva had a lackluster performance in what turned out to be a very disappointing card overall and he in particular, received criticism.

The 41-year-old recently hit back at his critics on social media, stating that he was still the best in the world. Bisping, however, believes "The Spider" disrespected everyone who came to see him.

"He was kind of disrespecting everybody there, disrespecting his opponent," Bisping said as quoted on Bloody Elbow.

"At times, he grabbed the Thai clinch on Derek Brunson, had the Thai clinch but didn't do anything. Didn't throw an elbow, certainly didn't throw a knee, and he allowed Brunson to just tee off with like 10, 15 punch combinations to Anderson Silva while Anderson just held him. It's just bizarre."

The Briton – who defeated Silva at UFC Fight Night in London in February 2016 – is still a fan of Silva, claiming he bought the pay-per-view to watch him in action, but felt he did not deserve to win in Brooklyn, New York.

"Now I'm not trying to kick a man while he's down, I'm really not, because I bought the pay-per-view to watch Anderson Silva," Bisping added.

"Regardless of what's happened between the two of us, I'm a fan of Anderson Silva and he still always brings that excitement and even still right up until the final bell of a 15-minute fight you still thought 'hold on is he going to pull something amazing out of the bag?' but he didn't.

"What he did was he allowed Brunson to out work him so when he went to decision, everybody, and we had a few people over, my manager and some of his staff came over and we had some friends there, there was about 20 people in the house and everybody thought Derek Brunson was going to get the decision and of course it went to Anderson Silva, which was shocking.

"I guess maybe you could see an argument for Anderson winning rounds one and two but it was just a bizarre performance. He's tarnishing his legacy. Let's put it like that."

Bisping is currently nursing a knee injury but is expected to return to the octagon to defend his title against Yoel Romero in May 2017, seven months after his last title defence against Dan Henderson at UFC 204.