Former UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping has had an illustrious career within the sport of mixed martial arts. However, the fighting veteran has since decided to announce his retirement.
Speaking on The MMA Hour, “The Count” decided to offer a look back at his storied career within the sport and provide some of his highlighted moments.
“It’s flown by, but [UFC 199] does seem like a long time ago. I don’t know why, maybe it was because of the short notice or something, but I’ve never felt so confident going into a fight in my life. Never felt so confident. Even if you watch it back, and you see we try to touch gloves and Rockhold’s like, ‘No touch, no touch,’ and I said, ‘No touch? Well I’ll touch you in a second, motherf*cker.’ And you can hear it, I’m just off-screen saying, ‘I’ll touch you in a second, motherf*cker.’
“The fact that I’m so calm in my mind to be coming out with witty remarks right before the fight starts just shows how calm and in the moment I was, and a lot of that was because of (head coach) Jason Parillo again, and all my coaches. It was a great moment and I’ll forever remember it.”
“For me, it was afterwards, just in the car with my wife and children … like most people probably do. It’s nothing flashy or whatever. I dropped them off and drove home before I met my friends and got a little to drunk or whatever, but just getting into the car from the arena with my wife and my kids, with a gold belt on my wife’s lap, I never thought that moment would ever happen. Just us.
“It was just one of those things. My wife with the kids, and they’ve got to go to bed, so I’m like, ‘I’ll take you.’ We got in the car, it was just a beautiful moment. Kids in the car, belt on my wife’s knee, driving home. She was there every step of the way, always believed in me, and now she has the world belt on her lap. It was just amazing.
“It was just disbelief, to be honest. Even though we were all confident and my wife always believed in me, it was just disbelief. We just couldn’t believe it. The journey from, I used to sleep in my car to now living in California, we’re sitting in a nice car, driving home with a world belt — just the journey we’ve been on.”
When asked about his favorite moment from inside the octagon, beside his knockout of Luke Rockhold, Bisping added:
“Anderson Silva. Beating Anderson in London in front of my home people, nearly getting finished in the third round, my face literally hanging off, cuts everywhere, an absolute bloodbath, fighting through that adversity — I’m glad that happened, because it made the story so much better. I got emotional after the fight in the Octagon, I shed a little tear, because that was the guy that I’d looked up to for so long that I knew I could beat. I always knew I could match up well with him and beat him, but I just never got a chance. So to do it in the way that it happened, that meant a lot to me. That was a huge moment.”
Bisping finally offered a few words on what he believed made his career possible.
“I was a hard-working guy. I was game. I always took on all comers. I never ducked opponents. I never took steroids. I did it the hard way, blood, sweat, and tears. Lots of sweat, lots of blood, lots of tears. And I can be sitting here having a conversation and being a world champion, because physically, I was never that impressive, I’m not the strongest guy, I’m not explosive, none of that, but I’ll f*cking fight anybody, and I made it work for me through blood, sweat, and tears.
“Just know that anyone can achieve anything, and I’d like to think that I’m proof of that. And when you think of Michael Bisping, just think of, there was a guy that never turned anyone down and took on all comers, did it the right way, did it the hard way, did it the clean way.”
