Michael Bisping: Conor McGregor had an announcement planned for UFC 223

Last week, in the immediate lead-up to UFC 223, Conor McGregor touched down in Brooklyn, New York, and all hell broke lose.

The former UFC lightweight champ and his cronies went berserk inside the Barclay’s Center—the card’s host venue—shelling a UFC 223 fighter bus with whatever they could get their hands on. This rampage reached a violent crescendo when McGregor infamously threw a hand truck through the bus window, injuring several fighters.

In the wake of this carnage, McGregor was detained by the NYPD, charged, and called to court. While he is now back in Ireland, its safe to say that his visit to Brooklyn didn’t go quite as planned.

In fact, former UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping says that McGregor was going to make some kind of announcement—presumably about his return to the Octagon—sometime around the time of Khabib Nurmagomedov’s title fight with Al Iaquinta.

“By all accounts, Conor was going to be at the Barclays Center on Saturday night to make an announcement,” Bisping said on his “Believe You Me” podcast (via Sherdog). “It was going to be a title fight or whatever the fight was going to be, I’m sworn to secrecy so I can’t say but he was going to be there.”

Speaking on his podcast, Bisping also shared a bit of advice with the increasingly volatile Conor McGregor.

“Just lose the chip, that would be my advice. Just lose the f–king chip on the shoulder, man,” Bisping said. “It’s made me realize as well, cause I’ve got a good life, I’m very, very lucky. I thought about this. You see Conor go out there and doing this like what the hell are you doing? Why would you do that?

“Look at everything he has going for him. People would literally kill to be in his position. People dream of being in that position and now he’s in that position and he’s going out there and acting like that.”

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 4/12/2018.