Michael Bisping News

Justin Golightly - December 20, 2017

Georges St-Pierre waltzed into the UFC after being out for four years and added another ridiculous accomplishment to his career by taking the UFC middleweight title from Michael Bisping. It was a gigantic moment, but UFC 217 somehow seems like a distant memory now, especially after he dropped the title only a month later due to his health issues. As the combat sports year starts to close, Bisping reflects on the controversial aftermath of St-Pierre’s win. The former champ still thinks he’s a prick, but concedes that it was actually a really smart move. “[Georges St-Pierre]’s a prick. He’s a prick, god bless him. I’m gonna be brutally honest here, [him vacating the title is] a double-edged sword. It’s a good thing and a bad thing. By the way, Dana White threw me under the bus when he first found out. He wasn’t happy with Georges and he said, ‘Yeah, well he cherry-picked Bisping.’ That doesn’t do me any favors! He didn’t cherry-pick me, but I did say that. I said Georges wanted to fight me because he thought I was an easy fight and this and that, and he got the win, and then he vacated the belt. Now he vacated the belt because apparently he had to go to the hospital after our fight and he thought he was gonna be paralyzed and he had a bad neck and all this type of stuff. I don’t know. He just doesn’t fancy doing it again.”

Justin Golightly - December 19, 2017

Jorge Masvidal hasn’t been quiet about wanting to ‘slap up’ Michael Bisping. The two have been in multiple confrontations together, mostly stemming from Bisping’s mind games aimed at Masvidal’s teammate Yoel Romero, which included ripping up a Cuban flag. He even offered to fight the former UFC middleweight champion at UFC Shanghai, if Kelvin Gastelum couldn’t make it. Lately though, things have been quiet. However, that’s only because the talk has transpired in private. Well, until now. Masvidal just posted his DMs with Bisping trying to get a fight. Jorge Masvidal: “Hey hoe ass Michael Bisping, quit talking sh-t to me when the UFC team and staff and act like a man. Let this 155-pound end your racist ass, you punk b-tch. You rip my flag and spit on Latin fighter’s corners. Damn right you won’t get in there with me. You know I’m going to hurt you and keep hurting you. Not going to knock you out quick, hell no, I’ll punish your ass for disrespect you bring. Just sing pussy, don’t run your mouth or from the fight. You had your chance to talk like men in private and you chose to make a scene in front of fans and UFC staff. You’re such a hoe.” 

Justin Golightly - December 12, 2017

Just last week, Georges St-Pierre vacated his freshly won UFC middleweight title, directly promoting Robert Whittaker’s fight with Luke Rockhold in Perth for the undisputed belt. It was the fallout from his UFC 217 health scare that led to his decision. St-Pierre basically tortured himself to move up a division, which culminated in a ulcerative colitis diagnosis. It became so bad, the fight was almost called off. Now John Danaher admits he even though St-Pierre would lose in his impaired state. “Halfway through this camp we knew there was something very seriously wrong. There was a point where we lost a week and a half of training. Even the day of the [Michael Bisping] fight, [Georges St-Pierre] was dealing with serious medical problems. I’m not going to lie to you, two weeks out I had a talk with Firas Zahabi and I said that the St-Pierre I saw train today gets knocked out by Michael Bisping. He did exactly what the plan was designed to do. He finished the fight with a beautiful strike setting up a submission hold. […] And he did it on a man above him in weight class. What made it all the more impressive if he did this with all the health problems he was dealing with.”

Justin Golightly - December 7, 2017

After Georges St-Pierre finished Michael Bisping, the former middleweight champion was eager for a quick turnarond against Kelvin Gastelum. It didn’t end up the way Bisping wanted it, also putting the UFC under fire for letting it happen. Bisping himself has recently opened up and admitted it might not have been a good move, but that he has no regrets. Georges St-Pierre spoke about the fight and displayed a lot of respect to his last opponent, but wasn’t happy with the UFC either. “Medically, [Michael Bisping fighting Kelvin Gastelum at UFC Shanghai] was not the right thing to do. However, if he would have succeeded – you know, he took a big risk and me, I can accept that because he took a big risk – if he would have succeeded he would have been like a hero. It’s like, ‘Oh my God, he just lose the title and then he come back with no preparation, boom, wins a fight.’ I think he tried to do something that was very, very risky, but at the same time if he would have achieved it, it would have been a big reward for him. So I can respect that. For him, I can respect the idea that he had, the goal that he had doing it.”

Tom Taylor - December 5, 2017

Former UFC middleweight champ Michael Bisping lost twice in November: first, to Georges St-Pierre, which marked the end of his title reign, then to Kelvin Gastelum, who knocked him out just weeks after his concussive loss to St-Pierre. In the wake of these losses, Bisping’s long-time coach Jason Parillo believes it might be time for Bisping to think about hanging up the gloves, and plans to have a conversation with him to that end.

Chris Taylor - November 30, 2017

UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley does not understand the logic behind Michael Bisping’s decision to make a quick turnaround and fight Kelvin Gastelum at UFC Shanghai. Just three weeks after being choked unconscious by Georges St-Pierre in the main event of UFC 217, former champion Michael Bisping was back in the octagon staring down dangerous middleweight Kelvin Gastelum.

Chris Taylor - November 26, 2017

Joe Rogan criticizes the UFC’s decision to let Michael Bisping fight against Kelvin Gastelum at UFC Shanghai. Just three weeks after being put to sleep by Georges St-Pierre in the main event of UFC 217, former UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping was back in action against Kelvin Gastelum this past Saturday in China.

Chris Taylor - November 26, 2017

Former UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping suffered his second stoppage loss in just three weeks at yesterday’s UFC event in Shanghai, China. After being put to sleep by Georges St-Pierre in the main event of UFC 217 on November 4, “The Count” decided to make a quick turnaround and accepted a short-notice fight with Kelvin Gastelum for November 25.

Chris Taylor - November 25, 2017

Ben Askren put the Ultimate Fighting Championship on blast for allowing Michael Bisping to co-headline today’s UFC Fight Night 122 event in Shanghai, China. Askren took to Twitter shortly following Bisping’s brutal first-round knockout loss to Kelvin Gastelum where he proceeded to criticize the UFC’s decision to let “The Count” fight just “3 weeks after being concussed”.

Chris Taylor - November 25, 2017

Kelvin Gastelum scored arguably the biggest win of his mixed martial arts career earlier today in Shanghai when he defeated former UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping via first-round knockout. Gastelum was able to land a huge left hand that sent “The Count” crashing to the canvas and quickly put an end to the fight.

Justin Golightly - November 25, 2017

While most of us slept off our second helping of Thanksgiving, Kelvin Gastelum was in Shanghai, China earning the biggest win of his entire career. It only took him a single round to take out Michael Bisping, who was coming off a super quick turnaround from UFC 217’s loss to Georges St-Pierre. Gastelum wasted no time at all declaring exactly what he wanted this win to propel him towards: The UFC middleweight title. With St-Pierre’s next fight up in the air, Gastelum set his sights on a fight with Robert Whittaker in Perth. Flush.#UFCShanghai pic.twitter.com/10gMesZuwB

Justin Golightly - November 25, 2017

Brutal. pic.twitter.com/BORuBEyjdw — FloCombat (@FloCombat) November 25, 2017

Adam Conklin - November 20, 2017

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxR6HI70Wxk Before former middleweight champion Michael Bisping captured UFC gold, he was working his way up the ladder like he did so many times before. On that road, Bisping met almost everyone of note in the upper-echleon division, including prolific striker Cung Le.

Justin Golightly - November 18, 2017

Eager to get the bad taste of his loss to Georges St-Pierre out of his mouth, Michael Bisping jumped at the chance to replace Anderson Silva’s spot against Kelvin Gastelum. He has stated that he’ll be retiring in England next year, but decided to squeeze one more in there. Despite ultimately being finished by St-Pierre, Bisping’s coach goes on record saying he think Gastelum is a tougher fight. “Really, Kelvin [Gastelum] is, in my opinion, on the feet, a tougher fight than Georges St-Pierre. It’s not like Mike’s a guy that shoots and wrestles all the time so obviously it’s gonna be a lot of stand up fighting and this guy’s a bigger threat than I think that even Georges was. This guy’s got a different mind frame. Is it gonna hurt or help him? We’re gonna’ find out. You can look at it both ways. I’m looking that it’s a good thing that Michael wants to do. It’s something that he’s very happy about the decision that he made to do this, so we’ve got to ride that positive mind into this fight and hope for the best.”

Justin Golightly - November 18, 2017

Kelvin Gastelum was originally supposed to fight the legend Anderson Silva in the main even of UFC Shanghai, but Silva’s flagging by USADA took away that opportunity. Luckily, perhaps an even more high profile match-up landed in Gastelum’s lap. Michael Bisping wanted to bounce right back from his loss to Georges St-Pierre at UFC 217, so he offered to step up short notice against the middleweight contender. Gastelum feels like a possible win over Bisping could finally get him close to the gold belt. “Yes. If I win this fight [with Michael Bisping], it will put me up high in the rankings and hopefully in the conversations to fight for the title. That’s ultimately my goal. I feel like if I win this fight then I might have tarnished those plans and I might’ve just permanently put myself in the position where I’ll be fighting for the middleweight title. If I get to fight for the middleweight title, then that’s ideal but I also feel like if I do the right things and I’m able to make the 170 safely and healthy, then I can do it and I want to fight for that title too.” — Kelvin Gastelum speaking on the UFC Shanghai conference call. 

Justin Golightly - November 18, 2017

Jorge Masvidal does not like Michael Bisping. Like, at all. It’s not just the trash talk that gets under Masvidal’s skin, whatever bad feelings he may have had toward the former UFC middleweight champion were magnified tenfold after Bisping desecrated the Cuban flag cageside. Combined with his friendship with Yoel Romero, this makes any situation volatile, as we saw when the two nearly came to blows recently. It’s all those reasons why Masvidal is willing to fight Bisping as a replacement if somehow Kelvin Gastelum can’t make it. “I think if Kelvin Gastelum doesn’t make weight, I’ll step right in. That’s what I like to do. I like to fight, so if that happens, if you know, I’m going to be praying that Gastelum eats too much dessert or something. I think [Michael] Bisping will win. Even though I don’t like him too much as a person, I think Bisping will win. Me personally, I just don’t like Bisping because we’ve had problems in real life, I just don’t like. If I could fight him in the Whole Foods parking lot I would. Any Aussie super market. I would fight that guy for a parking spot, that’s how much I don’t like him.” — Jorge Masvidal speaking at the UFC Sydney Q & A. 

Tom Taylor - November 15, 2017

If things had gone according to the original plan, the UFC’s November 26 visit to Shanghai, China would be headlined by a middleweight scrap between Kelvin Gastelum and former champion Anderson Silva. Unfortunately, Silva was pulled from this bout after a disappointing brush with the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA). The silver lining is that the UFC was able to find a compelling replacement for Silva in Michael Bisping, who wore the divisional crown until he was dethroned by Georges St-Pierre earlier this month. Now less than two weeks out from this event, the UFC has released an updated poster for it, highlighting Michael Bisping and Kelvin Gastelum’s last-minute main event confrontation.

Tom Taylor - November 14, 2017

Earlier this month, in the main event of UFC 217, a 38-year-old Michael Bisping surrendered the UFC middleweight title to Georges St-Pierre, succumbing to a rear-naked choke after being dropped by a left hand. Though this title loss seemed like a cause for a bit of a vacation, Bisping surprisingly agreed to a quick turnaround, stepping in to replace Anderson Silva against Kelvin Gastelum in the main event of the UFC’s November 26 debut in Shanghai, China.