Michael Bisping

Bisping was raised in Clitheroe, Lancashire, and was born on a British military installation in Nicosia, Cyprus. He attended Billington’s St. Augustine’s Roman Catholic High School. Through his mother, Andrew, his Polish paternal grandfather, came from the illustrious Zamoyski Family of Poland.

After the German invasion of Poland in 1939, Andrew and his family escaped to England, where many members of the aristocratic families were hunted down and killed by German Nazi forces. Jan, the father of Bisping, served in the British ArmWhen he was eight years old, he started learning Jujutsu. At the age of 15, he participated as an amateur in Knock Down Sport Budo, the first “no holds barred” event held in Britain and the forerunner of contemporary mixed martial arts (KSBO).

Bisping made the decision to stop training in martial arts at the age of 18 in order to “pursue real-life.” Less than a year later, on the recommendation of Black Knights Kickboxing owner Allan Clarkin, who saw potential in Bisping, Bisping started training in boxing, kickboxing, and karate. In his brief but fruitful kickboxing career, Bisping won both the North West Area championship and the Pro British light heavyweight title.

After once more taking a brief break from competing in 1998, Bisping made a comeback to kickboxing and won the Pro British light heavyweight championship twice. He was obliged to stop training full-time for kickboxing shortly after taking home his second championship in order to get a “real job.” He worked as an upholsterer, postman, tiler, plasterer, and salesperson in addition to factories, slaughterhouses, and demolition businesses.

On 4 April 2004, Bisping won Steve Mathews’ submission fight at Pride & Glory 2: Battle of the Ages in 0:38. This was his professional mixed martial arts debut. Just one month later, at UK MMA Challenge 7: Rage & Fury, Bisping defeated John Weir by knockout. At Cage Rage 7, Bisping was slated to compete in his third MMA fight against the skilled Renato Sobral, but ten days before the event, Sobral withdrew.

Instead, Bisping used a technical knockout to defeat Mark Epstein and win the Cage Rage light heavyweight title. With a knockout victory against Epstein in their rematch at Cage Rage 9, Bisping went on to defend his championship title and cemented his position as one of the best light heavyweight competitors in England. He was given the nickname “The Great British Hope” by UFC.com as a result of it.

On January 29, 2005, at The Ultimate Fight Club UK: Natural Instinct, Bisping faced David Brown in a light heavyweight match to make his cage kickboxing debut. Brown had a severe cut, therefore Bisping won round 2 through a doctor’s stoppage. On April 30, 2005, at Ultimate Force, Bisping made his professional debut for the organization by defeating Dave Radford to claim the vacant Cage Warriors light heavyweight championship.

The next day, May 21, 2005, at CWFC: Strike Force 1, Bisping battled in another light heavyweight cage kickboxing match against Cyrille Diabaté. After the first extra round, Bisping was defeated by a decision. On June 18, 2005, he won the FX3 light-heavyweight championship, and for a while, he ruled the main federations in the UK.

At CWFC: Strike Force 2, on July 16, 2005, Bisping defeated Miika Mehmet in his first defense of the Cage Warriors championship. Although Cage Warriors claimed that Bisping was eager to defend his title but was being penalized by Cage Rage because of his connections to Wolfslair and Cage Warriors, Cage Rage stripped Bisping of the light heavyweight championship in September 2005 citing “management concerns.” With a record of 10 victories and no defeats before the end of 2005, Bisping successfully defended the Cage Warriors championship once more, this time against Jakob Lovstad and Ross Pointon in the CWFC: Strike Force series of events.

As a participant in Tito Ortiz’s training in the UFC’s The Ultimate Fighter 3 reality television series at the beginning of 2006, Bisping was highlighted. He defeated Kristian Rothaermel in a preliminary round through technical knockout and then defeated Ross Pointon via submission after landing a flying knee and several other blows. As the second Light Heavyweight champion of The Ultimate Fighter television series, Bisping defeated Josh Haynes in the championship match via TKO at 4:14 into the second round.

The Ultimate Fighter 4’s championship bout between Bisping and Eric Schafer was scheduled to take place five months after his triumph in the TUF 3 finals, however, Bisping withdrew due to issues getting a visa. At UFC 66, the fight was rescheduled for December 30. Schafer was TKO’d by Bisping at 4:24 of the opening frame. Elvis Sinosic was defeated by Bisping via TKO at UFC 70 in Manchester, England, on April 21, 2007. At the Cage Warriors competitions Enter The Wolfslair on March 5, 2005, and CWFC: Strike Force 6 on May 27, 2006, Bisping served as a special guest referee.

In London, England, on September 8, 2007, Matt Hamill and former Ultimate Fighter 3 foe Bisping squared off. By a razor-thin margin, Bisping prevailed. Many people disagreed with the verdict since they thought Hamill had won the bout. Rashad Evans, a fellow Ultimate Fighter champion, gave Bisping his first defeat in their UFC 78 bout, which ended in a split decision.

People had been telling Bisping that he was too small for the light heavyweight class and would do better at middleweight since the beginning of his MMA career. After losing to Evans, Bisping made the decision to go down a weight class with the backing of UFC president Dana White. Charles McCarthy was Bisping’s opponent in his middleweight debut at UFC 83 on April 19, 2008. McCarthy suffered a forearm injury in the first round after taking an unanswered barrage of knees and uppercuts from Bisping, which resulted in Bisping winning through TKO. McCarthy was unable to continue the fight beyond that point.

The following match between Bisping and Chris Leben was set on June 7, 2008, at UFC 85 in London. However, Jason Day stepped in after Leben was given a 35-day prison term and was unable to fight. It was Bisping’s second consecutive first-round TKO as he decisively won the battle. Instead, Bisping defeated Leben in the main event of UFC 89 on October 18, 2008, by unanimous decision. Denis Kang, a PRIDE and Spirit MC veteran, was Bisping’s opponent at UFC 105 on November 14. By way of a TKO in the second round, Bisping prevailed. At UFC 110 on February 21, 2010, Bisping went up against former PRIDE Middleweight Champion Wanderlei Silva. Silva prevailed after a unanimous vote.

At UFC 114 on May 29, 2010, Bisping won by a majority decision over Dan Miller. At UFC 120 on October 16, 2010, Yoshihiro Akiyama was the opponent. Bisping beat him, winning 30-27 on all three judges’ scorecards. At UFC 127 on February 26, 2011, Bisping and Jorge Rivera engaged in a contentious battle. Prior to the battle, the competitors had verbally attacked one another and were restrained after a heated exchange during the weigh-in. Bisping dominated the opening frame, scoring a couple of takedowns, but he then accidentally kneed Rivera in the head. After a protracted break in the action, Bisping lost a point and the battle resumed. In the second round, Bisping successfully used a TKO to finish the contest.

At UFC 152, Bisping met Brian Stann on September 22, 2012. The contest was decided unanimously in favor of Bisping. On January 19, 2013, Bisping competed against former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Vitor Belfort at UFC on FX: Belfort vs. Bisping. A victory would have earned Bisping a chance at the championship. He was struck flush with a head kick in the second round, which caused him to lose the bout through TKO. This kick, according to Bisping, separated the retina of his right eye. He put off going to the doctor out of concern that he wouldn’t be able to participate once again.

At UFC 186, Bisping faced C.B. Dollaway on April 25, 2015. The fight was decided unanimously in favor of Bisping. On July 18, 2015, Bisping and Thales Leites squared off at UFC Fight Night 72. The close battle was decided in his favor. Chris Weidman’s injury forced him to withdraw from the fight, so Bisping stepped up with only 17 days’ notice to challenge champion Luke Rockhold for a second time at UFC 199 on June 4, 2016. He became the UFC Middleweight Champion and the first British UFC champion after winning through knockout in the opening round.

The rematch between Bisping and Henderson took place at UFC 204 on October 8, 2016. By unanimous decision, Bisping prevailed in the match and kept the UFC Middleweight Title. During an appearance on SportsCenter on March 1, 2017, Dana White said that Bisping’s subsequent title defense will take place sometime in 2017 against the resuming former UFC Welterweight Champion Georges St-Pierre. The last matchup occurred on November 4, 2017, in the UFC 217 main event. Due to a rear-naked choke in the third round, Bisping was forced to concede the fight through technical submission.

As a stand-in for Anderson Silva, who had been suspended by USADA after failing a drug test, Bisping fought Kelvin Gastelum on November 25, 2017, at UFC Fight Night: Bisping vs. Gastelum. This fight took place three weeks after Bisping had lost the Middleweight championship. He was knocked out in the opening round of the bout. The formal announcement of Bisping’s retirement from MMA combat came on May 28, 2018. On The Joe Rogan Experience in late December 2018, Bisping discussed his decision to leave mixed martial arts (MMA), which he said was motivated by an eye injury sustained during his match with Kelvin Gastelum.