Michael Bisping may be an actor now, however, his past as a mixed martial artist has continued to inspire and motivate all aspiring British UFC fighters. Bisping, in 2018, became the first Briton to compete in the UFC main event and the only one to win it.
He has spent most of his career fighting in the middleweight division of the UFC. He also won other titles, such as the Cage Rage Light Heavyweight Championship and the Ultimate Fighter 3 Championship for the Light Heavyweight division. Since taking off his fighting gloves, Bisping has appeared in several films, most notably in X XX: Return of Alex Cage
Biography of Michael Bisping
The former UFC champion was born into an army household and to a military father, Jan Bisping. He was born on February 28, 1979 in a military camp in Nicosia, Cyprus. However, his childhood years were spent in Clitheroe, Lancashire. Michael attended St. Augustine’s Catholic High School in Billington.
Before that time, young Michael had already shown an interest in the art of combat and started taking jujutsu lessons at the age of eight. Bisping participated as an amateur in his first “no holds barred” competition in 1994. He was only 15 at the time.
After turning 18, Michael became disenchanted with the world of martial arts and quit to pursue real life. However, he returned less than a year later and began taking boxing, kickboxing and karate lessons. At the time, Black Knights kickboxing owner Alan Clarkin took him under his wing.
Bisping spent some time as a kickboxer and won the North West Area title and later the Pro British title in the Kick Boxing Heavyweight division. He would win the latter a second time after returning from a brief hiatus which began in 1998. Michael quit the sport again and spent a few years working in various positions as a butcher, factory worker, demolition staff, postman, salesman and myriad other roles.
Professional MMA Career
Michael started his professional MMA career in 2004 with a bang, killing his first opponent Steve Matthews via submission in just 38 seconds. His second fight was his first round of 16 win and his third saw him claim the Cage Rage Light Heavyweight title in a TKO win over Mark Epstein.
A year after his professional debut, he recorded a win over Dave Radford which saw him win the vacant Cage Warriors Light Heavyweight title at the time. Two months later, in June 2005, he captured the FX3 light heavyweight title and lost it in September of the same year, after the title was stripped from him by the promotion Cage Rage.
As part of the UFC reality series The Ultimate Fighter 3, Michael Bisping, trainer of Tito Ortiz, became only the second winner of the TV series Light Heavyweight title when he defeated Josh Haynes in two rounds.
After a loss to Rashad Evans, Michale decided to move down to middleweight. This move saw an immediate improvement in his career record. Bisping recorded wins over Charles McCarthy, Jason Day and Chris Leben.
Michael Bisping returned for the ninth season of The Ultimate Fighter reality series. He co-hosted the season with teammate Dan Henderson. After the show, at UFC 100, Bisping recorded his first round of 16 loss to Henderson. The former heavyweight suffered mild amnesia following the loss. Michael returned to the coaching role in 2011 on The Ultimate Fighter 14 with Jason Miller. He went on to earn the TKO victory over Miller in three rounds in the show’s finale on December 3, 2011.
What happened to his eye?
The year 2013 started on a sour note for the Briton. On January 13, Bisping suffered a freak injury that quickly became one of the most famous injuries in UFC history. In the second round of a match against Vitor Belfort, he suffered a retinal detachment in his right eye after being kicked in the head.
Michael Bisping refused to see a doctor for fear that the results of the medical examination would end his fighting career. He continued to compete but ultimately opted to go under the knife as the symptoms of his eye injury were becoming too painful. His surgery kept him out of competition for almost a year. However, the resilient fighter returned in a fight against Tim Kennedy on April 16, 2014.
Since then, Bisping has lived with a condition called strabismus. This basically means that his eyes are misaligned whenever he is focused on an object.
In August 2014, Bisping received his first Performance of the Night bonus in a TKO victory over Cung Le. In the following years he continued to rack up wins and a few losses. He faced Luke Rockhold, CB Dollaway and Thales Leites. In December 2016, he recorded a unanimous decision win over Anderson Silva and both fighters were awarded Fight of the Night honors.
With just 17 days to prepare, Michael faced then UFC middleweight champion Luke Rockhold in a title match in June 2016. He knocked him out in the first round to win the title. , becoming England’s first UFC champion. He finally lost the ball to Georges St-Pierre on November 4, 2017, via a technical submission.
In May 2018, Michael Bisping left martial arts for the last time, reminiscing about his professional MMA career.
Michael’s Acting Portfolio
While Michael was still active in MMA, he landed his first major film role in 2016. He starred as a character named Hawk in the 2017 film xXx: The Return of Xander Cage. Previously, however, he had already made a few minor appearances in the 2014 comedy-crime film Plastic, and in the 2015 TV series Strike Back .
In 2017, Michael Bisping also appeared in Dark Matter, Twin Peaks, and My Name is Lenny. In January 2018, Den of Thieves was released, a film in which he played a minor role alongside Gerard Butler and Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson. He also had a role in another 2018 movie called Triple Threat.
Family: wife, children, son
The former UFC champion met his wife Rebecca Bisping (formerly Sidwick) in Manchester. The couple only got married in 2014, but they have been together for a long time, as evidenced by the ages of their three children. Michael and his Australian wife tied the knot in an unmistakably UFC-inspired wedding. The ceremony was even kicked off by UFC announcer Bruce Buffer. They have three children, two sons, Callum and Lucas, and a daughter, Ellie.
Body stats: height and weight
The kickboxing pro doesn’t really throw a bigger figure than most of his MMA contemporaries. It stands at a height of 1.85m and maintains a weight of 84kg. During his time as a fighter, Michael had a reach of 192cm.