Full transcript: Michael Bisping on London Real
3:20 Brian Rose: This is London Real. I am Brian Rose. My guest today is Michael Bisping, the English mixed martial artist, commentator, actor, author, and UFC world champion. In your 15-year career, you became the first British fighter to win a UFC title. You were twice crowned MMA International Fighter of the Year. In July, you were inducted to the UFC Hall of Fame. Today, you commentate on ESPN, host the popular Believe You Me podcast, and your new book, Quitters Never Win, tells is your unlikely story of a boy from Lancashire becoming a UFC world champion.
3:51 Sounds pretty cool. Welcome to London Real, Michael.
3:53 Michael Bisping: Thank you very much. That’s quite the introduction. Thank you, Brian.
3:56 Brian Rose: First of all, what’s it like being back in the UK, in London, I know you’re kind of a California now. What’s it feel to be back here?
4:03 Michael Bisping: Every time I come back to England, I’m just filled with this amazing sense of pride. I’m a proud Englishman, of course I live in America, and I’ll probably stay there now. We have three children, but I love the UK.
4:15 I feel like I can truly be me when I land here. I can be myself, my sense of humor can really, you know, it doesn’t translate too well on that side of the Atlantic. I can speak normally, you know, because I have to slightly give an American twang when I’m out there, otherwise people don’t understand me. Yeah, I mean, the grass is always greener on the other side, right? So when I’m in America, I’m like, man, I miss England, and then when I’m here, I’m like, I miss the sunshine, so.
4:38 But yeah, I love England, always happy to be back.
4:41 Brian Rose: Yeah, it’s a special place for sure. You know, I wanna take you back to 2002. UFC 38, brawl at the hall. I went to Royal Albert Hall, which I had only seen like an opera or something, and all of a sudden I see guys like Carlos Newton, Matt Hughes, Ian Freeman, Frank Mear, beating each other up.
4:59 It was my first UFC. I had just started training Brazilian jiu-jitsu. But take us back. What was MMA like in this country in 02? You knew some of those guys.
5:07 You crossed paths with Ian Freeman, you knew Mark Weir, and I mean it was early back in the day. We’ve had Dan Hardy on the show, Mark Goddard, and Paul Daley, but what was it like back then?
5:18 Michael Bisping: It was the Wild West, for sure. I mean, it was raw, it was rough, it was edgy, there was a lot of characters, a lot of criminality, if I’m honest. Everything was strictly legal, that’s for sure.
5:29 Different promotions had different rules, there wasn’t always doctors. It was nuts, it was insane. There was a lot of characters, unsavory characters, a lot of good people as well. It was a lot of fun. It was an interesting scene back then and to see where from then to now, to see the change, you know, is remarkable.
5:48 Brian Rose: It’s hard to believe actually that it’s such a major sport right now.
5:51 Michael Bisping: I know. Because back then it was like, hey, you would tell your friends, look at this cool thing happening. Don’t you guys get it? And the rest of the world was taking their time, really.
6:00 100%, so a lot of my friends back in the day, they didn’t watch and didn’t care for the sport. Now, you know, I’ll look on Facebook on a Monday morning. That’s how I stay in contact a lot of my old friends from Clithero, my hometown, and they’re talking about the fights at the weekend, you know, which never happened, and I know that seems like a weird thing to gauge it on, but it’s true, these are football fans. They love football, soccer, you know, but they’re talking about the fights at the weekend now.
6:23 Brian Rose: It’s still got a long way to come in this country, though.
6:26 Michael Bisping: Still got a long way to go, but we’re getting there, we’re closing the gap.
6:29 Brian Rose: Yeah, do you think people are born fighters? There’s something about your personality, Michael, that feels like you would have been out there mixing it up somehow. You got that personality?
6:38 Michael Bisping: Yeah, yeah, to me, I mean, I was kind of born that way. I was always that way. I never shied away from it. I always enjoyed a fight. I always, I really, really enjoyed it.
6:46 Like when I started doing martial arts at eight years old, that was great, that was fun. But at the end of the class, we’d put the boxing gloves on and have a tear up with the spar. And that’s what kept me going back week after week. And then sometimes we’d take the gloves and we’d go outside afterwards in the car park and carry on. I’m serious, we did.
7:04 And that’s what kept me going back. It was a love of competition. That’s why when I was training for a fight, I was always in great shape. People would say, how do you get in such good shape? Because I would spar all the time, you know, and that’s the hardest aspect.
7:15 It’s funny, if you want to get good at football, play football. You want to get good at tennis, play tennis. You want to get better at fighting and get in good condition. Fight, practice fighting, sparring.
7:27 Brian Rose: Are you a fighter before a martial artist?
7:29 Michael Bisping: Yeah. Okay. I’d say so, if I’m honest. I mean, I’d love to say I’m a martial artist. I am a martial artist, but I’m a fighter.
7:37 That’s what led me to martial arts.
7:39 Brian Rose: Yeah, and when you got your acceptance to the Hall of Fame, you said, I’ve never been afraid to fight another man. Yeah. How do you have that mentality?
7:47 Michael Bisping: You know, it’s insane when I look back now and the person I used to be, and if I go to that mind space that I had, you know, I can remember how I used to think and how I used to operate.
7:57 It’s insane, you know. I, and even now, like, I don’t sit around watching old footage of mine, but something came, I stumbled across one of my fights was being re-aired somewhere and I watched it.
8:07 Brian Rose: Which fight?
8:07 Michael Bisping: I’m not sure, I think it was C.B. Dalloway and then afterwards I’m talking about, you know, I’m gonna be the champion one day, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
8:15 Here’s a guy that’s pretty much blind in one eye, right? And I had all these injuries and whatnot and I think, where did this confidence come from? This guy’s out of his mind! But still, I still kept on, I wanted to be the champion so bad and I carried on until I achieved him, but still, I don’t know where that came from, and that drive and that determination and that stupidity, if I’m honest.
8:36 Brian Rose: Yeah, it has to be there, right?
8:38 There’s a little bit of stupidity in there. Yeah, now your family was supportive. Your dad used to drive you hours just to those jujitsu classes. But still, it was something inside of you, you think, that really wanted it.
8:48 Michael Bisping: Yeah, 100%.
8:49 I mean, unfortunately, I never went down the whole education route. You know, I went to college very briefly, dropped out, didn’t like it. I got decent grades at school, so I was able to get on the advanced Electrical Engineering course, which I had no business being on because it sounded like double Dutch to me. I couldn’t understand any of it. And why I was doing Advanced Electrical Engineering also.
9:08 I have no interest in that whatsoever. It was the most boring thing ever. So, you know, I dropped out pretty quick. One dead-end job after the other because, you know, unskilled 16-year-olds, the world isn’t looking for them.
9:22 Brian Rose: Right, and there was no money in fighting and no obvious career path.
9:26 Michael Bisping: No, no obvious career path. Back then, mixed martial arts didn’t really exist. So, yeah, it took a while, but then the sport started getting bigger and bigger, and yeah, put all my energy into fighting, and fortunately it paid off.
9:38 Brian Rose: What do you say to kids that come up to you these days and say, Michael, I want to be a fighter? There used to be that line in the UFC where you, I think you even said it, say you want to be a fighter.
9:48 Michael Bisping: Yeah, that’s right, Dana, yeah, say you want to be a fighter. I mean, I don’t know, I don’t necessarily encourage it for people. If they want to do it and they’re committed to it and they have the talent and the ability to go for it and give it everything you’ve got, but you’ve got to be fully in. You can’t dip your toes in it. It’s not something you can play at.
10:04 You can’t pussy-foot it. You can’t half-heartedly become a fighter. If you’re going to do it, all right, go for it, 100%. But I wouldn’t recommend it. Hopefully my children don’t do that.
10:13 They don’t follow in my footsteps. I kind of think I fought so they don’t have to. Now don’t get me wrong, mixed martial arts has enriched my life in ways I never thought possible. And it’s been tremendous for me and I’ve truly loved my career. But it’s a very, very tough sport.
10:26 It’s a dangerous sport. And it’s a difficult sport, and when I say difficult, I don’t mean to actually compete, I mean to make it successful. I go in gyms all over the world, and I speak to a lot of fighters, and I train with fighters, and I think, wow, this guy’s incredible. But they don’t get the brakes, and they’re living out of the car, they’re absolutely flat broke, and they’ve got the ability to be a world champion, but for whatever reason, they can’t put it together.
10:46 Maybe their nerves get the better of them on the night, so they make all the sacrifice to do everything they need, but on the night, it doesn’t go their way. And they don’t get the brakes, or maybe they haven’t got the right look, or whatever. it’s very, very difficult to be a successful fighter. And only less than 1% really make a real, real living out of it, you know? So it’s a labor of love for sure.
11:07 But the amount of time it takes to learn to be a competent mixed martial artist, you could go off and trade to be anything. You could be a lawyer, you could be a doctor, you could be a bloody brain surgeon. It takes a lifetime of work, you know? So if you wanna do it, go for it. But you take that risk of it might, A very good chance of it all being a complete waste of time.
11:26 Brian Rose: Right, and people see the highlight reels, but they don’t see the grind, the work, the injuries, the detached retinas, the surgeries, all that.
11:33 Michael Bisping: No, 100%, my body’s riddled. I mean, I’m in agony right now with my neck. I did wanna operate on my neck. I don’t wanna do that.
11:40 I’m blind in one eye, my knees are absolutely jacked. I went for a run yesterday. I look like the most bizarre human running because I’m kinda limping as I run, but I like to run. So that’s how I like to spend my time, especially in a city, on a beautiful day like yesterday, running through London, it’s great. You see a lot of mental stimulation, a lot of people see buildings.
11:59 Whenever I’m in a new city, I like to run, that’s how I find my whereabouts. But it hurts, I’m in pain, but I still do it.
12:06 Brian Rose: Right. Your big break, one of your big breaks, was The Ultimate Fighter, season three, you go out to Vegas, it’s the reality show, and you’re the only Brit on that?
12:15 Michael Bisping: It was one of the Brits.
12:16 Brian Rose: Yeah, that’s right. It was that crazy brawler guy I remember.
12:18 Michael Bisping: Yeah, yeah, Ross pointed, yeah. I’m gonna knock you out, that was his gameplay.
12:21 Brian Rose: I remember, but I remember seeing you there.
12:23 First of all, was that intimidating going to America? Or did Michael B. Bisping always think he could fuck up those yanks?
12:30 Michael Bisping: Yeah, 100% I did. I remember, I mean, it was super exciting.
12:33 I’d never been to America before in my life. That was my first time. And yeah, I’m in Las Vegas. I’m on a reality TV show. I mean, this is fucking cool.
12:39 I’m like, wow, this is great. This is really going to plan. This whole plan of being a fighter. This is going to the next level. And I remember I did an interview with Forrest Griffin.
12:49 He interviewed us all one by one. And I said to him at the time, and I remember, because we’d sparred and we’d done this and that, and I said, I don’t know about it in a mixed martial arts contest where the rules are different and this and that, so I don’t know if I’m gonna win this entire thing. I said, I’ll guarantee you this, I’ll take every single fucking one of them outside of the car park and beat the shit out of them. That’s a fact, that’s a given, that’s a guarantee.
13:10 Now in a fight with rules and wrestling and all the rest of it, you know, maybe that might be different, but in a one-on-one fight, I’ll take everybody in this house, no problem. They had that go over in the house. Yeah, well, that’s what I told them all to the faces. That’s where there used to be a lot of drinking as well, right? Yeah, yeah, there was a little bit of booze.
13:27 Yeah, so it didn’t go down too well with them. I wasn’t the most popular guy in the house. But hey, listen, we’re all there to fight, you know? And it’s psychological warfare as well, you know? You gotta put that doubt in your opponents.
13:38 Brian Rose: And a lot of guys were screwing around in that house, right, drinking and like, you know, trying to be famous, whereas only a few of you were probably thinking, wait a second, if I can win this, I got a career.
13:49 Michael Bisping: 100%, it always blew my mind, because I was there for one reason or another to win the show and really start my career. Some people were there for screen time and to get famous and all the rest of it. I remember on our evaluations, we had a fitness test, we had to do 500 squats, 500 push-ups and 500 sit-ups, right?
14:05 And they paired us up, we had a partner reach. And this guy, Christian, I said, okay, I said, so the squats, what should we do, 10 sets of 50? Just body weight squats, he said, okay, let’s do that. And we started doing them, and we get to 22, And he’s like, ah, ah, my legs, I’m like, really? Because we still got another 478 left to do and you’re in pain after 22 and he’s like, well, I was gonna use the show to get in shape.
14:29 I’m like, what do you mean use the show to get in shape? You might fight in two days. So anyway, sure enough, I picked him as my first opponent because I thought this guy’s out of shape. You know, you’re gonna use your brain, you’re gonna pick the right opponent.
14:43 Brian Rose: And you won, obviously.
14:44 Michael Bisping: I did.
14:44 Brian Rose: You used to like do all sorts of heavy work. used to climb around the cage at the end. I mean, you were trying to be the hardest working guy on that show, weren’t you?
14:52 Michael Bisping: Well, yeah, I mean, I’ve always been probably the hardest working guy in the gym.
14:56 Oh, it’s still to this day as well. When I go to the gym to lift weights or whatever now, or even when I go on a run now, my wife refuses to run with me now because we always end up arguing, right? Because, I don’t know, when I’m working out, I just go into the zone. Like, if I’m in the gym and people come and talk to me, I don’t mean to be rude, but it’s like, I’m working out, buddy. I’m not here for a social event.
15:17 I’m here to work out. I do a lot of super sets. I don’t like to rest. You know, I like to get my metabolism going. If I’m running with my wife, obviously she goes a little slow.
15:25 So I’ll stop and I’ll wait for her to catch up, right? So then we can run together a little. But then 30 yards away from me, she stops running. I’m like, what are you doing? She goes, well, you’ve stopped.
15:35 So I’ve stopped. I’m like, no, I’ve stopped so you can catch up. And then as soon as you get close to me, we’re gonna run again. So then we end up arguing and stuff like that. So we don’t run too much together.
15:45 Brian Rose: It sounds like a nightmare. Dana White, UFC president, you said he always allowed you to be you. Yes. What does that mean?
15:51 Michael Bisping: Well, not a lot of people do.
15:53 A lot of people try and censor me and whatnot, but he never, ever once came to me and said, don’t say this, don’t do that. You know, never tried to censor me. And always allowed me to be me. I actually was a very good friend to me over the years as well. You know, I went to dinner on a couple of occasions for things I needed, and he was there for me.
16:13 Financially in those early days, I remember I won the ultimate fight and money was very, very tight and I couldn’t fight for a while. I had to get my visa and things like that and unfortunately I had a couple of brushes with the law when I was a kid, so the visa wasn’t plain sailing so a lot of time had passed and he called up and said, how you doing for money? I’m a proud man. So I said, yeah, I’m fine. I’m good.
16:33 He says, bullshit. He said, you got to be broke. I said, no, no, no, I’m good, I’m good. And anyway, he sent me a check in the mail just so we could like get Christmas presents and whatnot. You know, but things like that.
16:41 But then just as a human being, you know, he’s been a good friend over the years, you know? So, yeah, a lot of respect for Dana.
16:47 Brian Rose: Not many people can say that with someone they’ve been in business with for 10 years.
16:50 Michael Bisping: Yeah, no, hey, listen, ups and downs along the way, of course, and I’m sure he could tell you a lot of things about me that I’ve pissed him off, and I haven’t always liked everything he said about me, and it hasn’t always been smooth, but, you know, we’ve had our ups and downs, but, you know, you gotta respect the man.
17:04 Brian Rose: Tell me about trash talking. That’s something you’ve always been good at. Back in the day, I even raced a train at London’s Youth Fighter, and they’d be like, Yeah, that basement used to always talk trash to our fighters. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, even before Cheo was talking trash and Conor was talking trash, you were talking trash.
17:18 Brian Rose: Yes. You talk trash to Anderson Silva, to GSP. Tell me, is there an art to it?
17:23 Michael Bisping: Yeah, well, see, there’s multiple trains of thought on this and, excuse me, you might think that you’re trying to hype the fight or sell the fight, maybe. You might say that you’re trying to engage your psychological warfare and make them doubt themselves, which is true.
17:38 I’m trying to make them doubt themselves. But the reality of it is, is that I’m gonna fight you and I take that personally. And so all the sport of that side, if it goes out the window to me, I’m like, this is the motherfucker that’s gonna try and knock me out. You know what I mean? So I take that personally.
17:51 And so I mean everything I’m saying to them right there and then in that moment. When the fight’s over, it’s done. I’ll shake your hand, give you a hug, you know, buy you dinner, whatever it is, you know, and love and respect the whole way. But if we’re gonna fight, it’s like, I do it, it just triggers something inside me. And I’m like, okay, well, you can go fuck yourself until this is done, you know?
18:11 But then also, I do try and, you know, I’ll remind them of their doubts, I’ll remind them of their shortcomings if they’ve lost a fight. You know, I wanna put that seed of doubt in their mind. And then at the weigh-ins, again, I’m not just trying to sell the fight. I’ll get in my opponent’s face and, you know, make a fool out of myself if I’m honest. Don’t put my best foot forward.
18:29 But I’m letting them know, tomorrow night it’s on. That’s the last time I’m gonna see them. And if I can get in their face and they think, Jesus Christ, he is a bit intimidating, isn’t he? That puts a seed of doubt in their mind. Then they’re not fully committing to their punches, and if you’ve got a little bit of doubt in there, that’s the worst thing a fighter can have.
18:46 You’ve got to have supreme confidence. If you doubt yourself a little bit, you could have already won the fight. Now that doesn’t work with everybody. Mentally strong fighters, they’ll just laugh it off. But some people, it does work, so I’m gonna try.
18:58 Brian Rose: Anderson Silva in London, did you get inside his head?
19:00 Michael Bisping: No, I don’t think so.
19:01 Brian Rose: So how many people had disrespected him like you had?
19:04 Michael Bisping: Yeah, well, they had always had a lot of respect for him. And I have tons of respect for him.
19:08 Brian Rose: I know you do.
19:09 Michael Bisping: So much respect. Honestly, how can you not respect the man? But we’re going to fight, and I can’t allow myself to have that level of respect. I’d fallen foul to that in the past.
19:19 When I thought we shot at Evans, I thought, wow, we shot at Evans, man. This is a big deal. It’s my first main event, and I had too much respect for him, you know? And, of course, Anderson had just tested positive for steroids as well. He’d just come back from that.
19:31 So that doesn’t impress me. So I was using that as my main course of insult, shall we say. But also I had to strip him down to just another man. I couldn’t look at him like the godlike figure in MMA that he is, otherwise that’s gonna affect my performance.
19:44 Brian Rose: Yeah, you mentioned steroids.
19:46 That’s something that’s always pissed you off, you know? And it does piss off certain fighters in the game, GSP and others. They’re always just, they just don’t tolerate that. Something you’ve always been angry about and something you knew was happening behind the scenes before the testing. So it happened?
19:59 Michael Bisping: Yeah, of course. I mean, certain people, you can just look at them and just, no, you know, I mean, I-
20:04 Brian Rose: You fought a TRT at Belfort, Vito Belfort as well, right?
20:06 Michael Bisping: Oh yeah, probably on all kinds of stuff, and I fought, Dan Henderson, he was on TRT, I had no idea of that at the time. And all these people, when they’re on tests, they’re on replacement therapy, they say, oh, I have to take this, if I don’t take this, I’ll die. And then the athletic commissions, you know, outlawed it, so to speak.
20:21 And years later, they’re still fighting, right? So they’re clearly just manipulating the system. And the thing is, you know, fighting, you know, it’s one of the most animalistic things, but if we’re going to compete in a cage and we’re going to fight like that, let’s do it on a fair footing, on an even playing field, enhancing yourself synthetically. Listen, if you’re not competing, do what’s good for you. I couldn’t care less, no judgment whatsoever.
20:44 If you want to take things as you’re getting older to reduce the aging symptoms or whatever, fine, good for you. If a doctor signs off on it and is medically safe, God bless you and go for it. But if we’re going to fight or compete in any sports, it’s got to be on a level playing field. Certainly when you’re not trying to put a ball in a basket, we’re trying to do damage to one another. You know, we can talk about respect and all this type of stuff, but let’s cut it down to the bare minimum.
21:07 It’s a savage sport. We’re trying to fucking knock each other out. We’re trying to hurt each other. And it’s only a matter of time before somebody dies in that, you know? So if you’re doing that and you’re cheating, I mean, I don’t know how someone can win a fight on steroids and look at themselves in the mirror and take credit for that win because you don’t deserve credit for that win.
21:22 And you’re cheating your opponent and you put them at risk. And I lost an eye through someone being on steroids.
21:28 Brian Rose: This is Dan Henderson.
21:29 Michael Bisping: No, Vitor Belfort.
21:30 Brian Rose: Vitor Belfort, right.
21:31 Michael Bisping: But that’s not why I’m so strongly against it, but that’s just, it confirms my position.
21:36 Brian Rose: Yeah, talk to me about Dan Henderson, the knockout. You said you couldn’t remember things for a couple months. I mean, that was strong. Talk to me about concussions, those kind of injuries.
21:46 I mean, besides the eye.
21:47 Michael Bisping: Yeah, no, I mean, yeah, when I got knocked out, it’s Dan Henderson. I mean, God bless him, fair play, great shot. Yeah, I didn’t know where I was for the longest time, I remember. I thought that I couldn’t understand why I’d fought.
22:00 I was like, hold on, we’re not fighting for like three months. And they’re like, no, the fight was, I’m like, well, why did I step in for somebody on short notice? And I’m like, no, Michael, that was the fight. And I’m like, a minute later, I’m like, what’s going on, where am I? And then, so, my friend was like, we’ve got to take you to the hospital.
22:16 I’m like, no, no, no, I’m fine. Let me get a shower. So I get in the shower and I put my head on the shower. I’m like, come here. I said, what’s going on?
22:22 He said, oh, we’ve got to get you to the hospital. I said, no, no, no, I’m fine. Oh, no, I’m good, I promise. I get in the shower, I’m like, where am I? And then, hey, come here.
22:31 I said, what’s going on? So I didn’t know where I was for the longest time. It was crazy, it was a heavy knockout, you know?
22:40 Brian Rose: Does that scare you, that stuff?
22:42 Michael Bisping: Not at the time, you know, the stupidity of youth.
22:46 Brian Rose: Amen to that. I know. So you beat someone in London and then you got you and Rockhold. Another great, so you get a chance to talk smack to Luke Rockhold.
22:55 Michael Bisping: Luke’s a funny guy, you know?
22:57 I think he ruins it for himself a lot.
23:00 Brian Rose: He does. He really does. He’s a talented fighter.
23:03 Michael Bisping: Very much so.
23:04 He goes in with a big fucking ego sometimes and just, I don’t know what it is.
23:08 Brian Rose: Is he sabotaging himself or what?
23:10 Michael Bisping: Yeah, well he’s not trying to, but his ego gets the better of him.
23:13 Brian Rose: And that’s where your trash talking definitely helped.
23:16 Michael Bisping: Yeah, yeah, yeah, well I hope so.
23:18 Yeah, because he was so adamant and proving that I was insignificant to him. He wanted to show that he was just so much better, you know. And yeah, you know, he paid the price, but.
23:28 Brian Rose: You were a massive underdog in that fight.
23:31 Michael Bisping: Yeah, I was in Toronto filming a movie with Vin Diesel and I got the call.
23:35 I was like, holy crap, well, I volunteered actually. And then I got the call. And yeah, I was a 10 to 1 underdog. I was taking an opponent that had already beaten me that was the world champion that looked supremely dominant. And I hadn’t even trained.
23:50 I was on a movie set, but yeah, it all worked out. And how did that feel?
23:55 Michael Bisping: You got no idea. Multiple reasons, one, to win the belt and the world champion, you know, realize the dream. That was incredible.
24:03 That’s incredible, because you spent years pursuing that. But to do it to him, ah, after all the trash talk and all the buildup and everything he said to me and him totally, and everybody writing me off as well. All the journalists writing me off. I was aware of what everyone was saying about me. I was aware of my naysayers and detractors, and I understand that.
24:21 I do, I remember when I fought Luke Rockall the first time. I did an interview with a journalist, and he said to me, he said, so this is it, right, Mike? He said, you lose this fight. He said, you’ll never come close to fighting for the World title again, right? I said, no.
24:36 I said, if I lose this fight, I’m gonna be set back, I’m gonna fall down the rankings, whatever. I said, but I ain’t over. If I lose this fight, I’m going nowhere. I’m still gonna continue trying while there’s life in my body. I’ll still continue, so no, that statement is inaccurate.
24:51 How can you keep that kind of belief? Because I knew I could do it. I knew I could do it. I knew for a fact I could do it. And for the longest time, and even still, not many of my fights did I perform to my ability.
25:04 In the gym I was so much better. And that was because I used to over train. I trained too much. At the start of my camp I’d look really good. The second half of camp I was a little beat up, I was a little weak, I was over trained, I wasn’t getting correct nutrition, things like that.
25:17 But I knew on the right night, if I could put it all together, I knew I was capable of doing it.
25:22 Brian Rose: Okay, so you beat Rockhold. There’s that famous picture in your book of the overhead shot where he’s laying in the corner. I guess it felt good, right?
25:30 Michael Bisping: Oh, yes.
25:30 The best feeling I ever felt in my life was John McCarthy’s giant forearm nearly choking me out and ripping me off him because it meant I’d won the fight. And it meant I was the champion of the world.
25:42 Brian Rose: Wow, man, that’s incredible. I didn’t know what happened. I just, I mean, no offense, but I never thought you’d do it.
25:49 Brian Rose: And then you did it and then it’s like, wow, this guy just didn’t quit, you know?
25:53 Michael Bisping: Yeah, yeah, well, a lot of people thought that, you know, and I’m kind of proud of myself in a way for that because, you know, just to get to a number one contender matchup in professional sports, you know, I mean, that’s very hard to do by itself, and I lost that, but I did that several times. I had three number one contender matchups, I lost them all now, you know, to my credit, I guess.
26:11 They were all on performance enhancing drugs, but whatever, I managed to rebuild myself on multiple occasions, and of course, I did it the fourth time, and then I won the belt. But I’m proud of that perseverance, all that stupidity, all the stubbornness, whatever you wanna call it, you could definitely put some positive objectives on there, and some negative ones as well. Stupidity is probably the one.
26:31 Brian Rose: Whatever works, right? Exactly.
26:32 GSP, you fought him as your second to last fight, I think it was. Yeah. Fun to see you talk trash to him. I mean, I think you showed up to the press conference of the few drinks, which is probably the best way to piss him off, right?
26:43 Michael Bisping: Yeah, well.
26:43 He’s such a conservative, martial artist guy. George is a great guy. George is a great guy. And when I was like-
26:48 Brian Rose: But when you signed the contract against B-Bisping, you better get ready.
26:51 Michael Bisping: Yeah, when I was, you know, I was having a laugh with George most of the time.
26:55 Brian Rose: You were kissing him in steroids too, which you know pissed him off.
26:59 Michael Bisping: Yeah, no, of course, 100%. George is a great guy. He is, any young fighter, aspiring fighter, should model their career on George St. Pierre.
27:06 The way he handles himself, the way he’s professional, the way he trains, you know, he is-
27:10 Brian Rose: So copy him, not you.
27:12 Michael Bisping: 100%. But when we had that press conference, there was still no, there wasn’t even a date. I knew it was going to be like towards the end of the year. This was in January.
27:20 I’m in Las Vegas, you know, I’ve got no fight to train for. Well, what’s an adult going to do in Las Vegas when he’s with his friends? Simple as that. So I show up and I was, I wasn’t drunk, but I was hungover and probably would have failed the breathalyzer if I was behind the wheel. The alcohol was still in my system.
27:35 And he’s like, oh, are you intoxicated? Yeah, I’m in Las Vegas. If you, if you can man up and actually give me a date when we’ll fight, then I wouldn’t be drinking. But you won’t, will you? So whenever you’re ready, you let me know and then I’ll come away from the bar.
27:50 But until then, I’m gonna enjoy myself.
27:52 Brian Rose: And it was a great fight and I know you gotta get going soon.
27:55 Michael Bisping: No, no, no, you’re good, you’re good. I apologize, I should have that one silent. Okay, no worries.
27:59 Brian Rose: So Hall of Fame, how did that feel being finally recognized and was it weird to finally give it up and retire?
28:06 Michael Bisping: Well, retiring, no, it wasn’t. I knew that was coming because, I mean, I have a prosthetic in my eye right now. When I take that out, my eye looks terrible and…
28:17 Brian Rose: It just looks different or it’s not…
28:19 Michael Bisping: Way different. It doesn’t look like an eye. It’s bad. It’s bad, it’s really bad. It doesn’t resemble an eyeball at all.
28:26 So I have…
28:27 Brian Rose: As your retina’s separated and you have things in there and then your other eye was in damage.
28:31 Michael Bisping: Yeah, so I have a vitreous detachment in my good eye which can lead to a detached wet nerve. I’m not careful, so I’ve got to watch that. But this was for five years.
28:39 The last five years of my fight career, I had a damaged eye, so I knew I was on borrowed time. So therefore, I was using my platform to set up as many different avenues as I could, you know, diversifying to whatever business I could as well. So in hindsight, that was beneficial because I was proactive in doing so, you know. So when I stepped away, I stepped away at a time when, you know, I mean, I’m very, very busy. I’ve got a lot of things going on, which I’m very happy for.
29:06 So that’s why the decision to retire was a relatively easy one at the time, to be honest. I pushed it for long enough, I’d achieved what I needed to achieve, I’d won the belt, I’d made some money, I’d opened some doors, what else is there left to do? Just flog a dead horse, get more injuries. Yeah, there’s some money there, but there’s other ways to make money as well. The Hall of Fame, that was beautiful, it really was.
29:28 I never realized how much it would mean to me or what a momentous occasion it was until it happened. A lot of people always say, how’s it feel, Hall of Fame? And I was, yeah, you know, it’s cool, it’s great. But then when it came, I was like, wow. If you’d have told the young kid from Clithero that one day the greatest fighting organization in the world will be honoring you and putting you in the Hall of Fame.
29:48 Well, that would have meant everything to that kid, you know, because that’s all he wanted to be. That’s all I had. When I was younger, I didn’t have much, you know, I didn’t have friends, you know, and I was around a lot of violence as a kid. And that’s all I knew. All I knew how to do was fight, you know?
30:07 And as I say, I didn’t have any friends or whatever, and I was bullied a lot. And then one day I was like, fuck that. From now on, anyone bullies me because we came from a poor family. They’re going to get it, you know what I mean? And then that became my identity and that became all I cared about.
30:20 So if you’d have told that kid one day, the UFC are going to put you in the Hall of Fame, that would have been huge. Now as I’m older and I’m wiser and I’m a different person, I’m way more mellow, I’m like, yeah, it’s cool. But to that young kid, that would have been everything.
30:36 Brian Rose: Yeah, what’s next for you? You got the book out. You’re commentating for ESPN You got a movie coming out with our friend Adams Gordon right? That looks really cool. Yeah, and what else yeah
30:47 Michael Bisping: Well, yeah, yeah, yeah got some acting more. I just did a show called warrior I’ve got a couple of movies lined up for later in the year, but then a thieves to we’ve got some good acting stuff coming up UFC Jim UK so I own the franchise rights to that we’re opening 120 gyms here in the UK I own a business called play line, which is the fastest growing daily fantasy sports business It’s absolutely huge. We just did a deal with NASCAR. We’re doing some deals with some NBA teams as well It’s a sports lottery basically Playline.com. It’s It’s blowing up massively. So that’s gonna be the money maker. That’s the big one. That’s the big play We’re gonna get quiet soon but podcasts acting commentating three kids a wife and Borderline alcoholic you put all that together. I’m a busy man I’m not an alcoholic, I’m joking, I’m joking.
31:35 Brian Rose: I love it. All right, last question. If you could make a phone call to the 20-year-old Michael B. Speng to give that young man some advice based on everything you know now, what would you tell that kid? The following success secrets are only available inside the London Real Tribe, where you get exclusive access and insights from our high-performance guests on wealth creation, productivity, leadership, morning routines, health, and well-being.
31:59 To join our tribe community, go to londonreal.tv forward slash tribe. Now, let’s continue with the show.
32:06 Michael Bisping: Be stubborn, man, that’s definitely you, for sure.
32:09 Brian Rose: I guess. Michael, thanks so much for everything you contributed to the sport.
32:14 I mean, I remember back in the day, man, and I couldn’t get anybody to get excited about this. I used to fly to Japan and watch the pride things and I had all the video tapes and you represented the UK scene, man. You were the one that championed it. And, I mean, your freaking perseverance is crazy, man. And people don’t even know about your injuries that you play down.
32:32 I mean, you paid the cost to be the boss.
32:34 Michael Bisping: Yeah, yeah, yeah, well, thank you so much. I really appreciate that, I really do. Thank you.
32:38 Brian Rose: All right, thanks, Mike.
32:39 Brian Rose: We’ll have you back on again sometime.
32:49 Michael Bisping: Anytime, I would love to. I would love to, yeah. Next time I’m in town, let’s do it.
