Former UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping was reportedly eyeing a retirement bout against Rashad Evans at UFC Fight Night 127 in London, but that fight fell through due to undisclosed reasons.

Evans reiterated that he will not be fighting Bisping in London and said he was surprised when his former foe suggested a rematch.

“It’s not going to happen,” Evans told Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour, per MMA Fighting’s Peter Carroll. “I did get the call, my manager called me — they worked it out. At first I didn’t want to even fight Bisping, but he asked to fight me. I was kind of perplexed by that, but then I thought maybe he just wants to scrap with his old friend one last time.

“I didn’t get any bad feelings about my friend wanting to fight me or someone who I thought was my friend trying to fight me, I was just like, ‘Ok, cool’.”

According to Evans, Bisping had ‘contract problems’ with the UFC and couldn’t negotiate a deal in time for UFC Fight Night 127.

“I started training and getting ready for the fight, but then I didn’t hear anything back about a contract. Finally, I got a contract, but that was on the day that I learned that Bisping wasn’t going to take the fight. He wasn’t going to do the fight because he was having some kind of contract problems with the UFC.”

Evans, 38, wasn’t too upset with Bisping’s decision to pull out of the fight and said ‘The Brit’ probably had other opponents in mind.

“I don’t think the fight will happen now. I think that was fight that made sense to him at that moment. I don’t think it’s something that’s going to make sense for him. It may appeal to him, it may not. I really don’t know, but I’m not going to sit around and wait for it. I’ll just ight whoever and see what comes next.”

Bisping, who lost a split decision to ‘Suga’ at UFC 78 back in 2007, recently expressed interest in a retirement fight against Lyoto Machida, claiming that both he and ‘The Dragon’ have a lot of mutual respect for each other.

Evans can understand why Bisping wants to hang up the gloves against a fellow MMA veteran, as the Brit knows there will be no foul play or dirty tactics amongst two seasoned competitors.

“He knows I’m not going to be doing anything dirty or anything like that to try and mess him up or hurt him really badly,” Evans said. “If you’re Michael Bisping and you’ve made a lot of enemies in this game, there’s a target on your back. If you’re wounded, people are going to go out there and try to kill you.”

With Bisping having confirmed on social media that he will not be in attendance at UFC Fight Night 127, former heavyweight champ Fabricio Werdum has been selected to headline the card alongside Alexander Volkov. The event takes place next month, March 17 at the O2 Arena in London, England.