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#2 Michael Bisping
It’s hard to believe, but a lot of fans were actually calling for Michael Bisping’s retirement following his loss to Luke Rockhold in 2014. At that point the British trash talker was 35 years old, was coming off a serious eye injury, and simply didn’t seem to have a lot left in the tank. Thankfully he stuck around, though – and pulled off an all-time great upset less than two years later, defeating Rockhold for the UFC Middleweight title.
Bisping made one defense of that title though – a win over old rival Dan Henderson – and then ended up on the shelf with various injuries. He ended up losing his title to Georges St-Pierre in November 2017, and was then knocked out by Kelvin Gastelum in a short-notice bout just 3 weeks later.
That loss was enough to trigger Bisping to retire – he stated he began to have problems with his good eye following the knockout, and simply felt that at that stage of his career, it wasn’t worth it anymore. Realistically, he had nothing left to prove anyway after his shock title reign – meaning he retired at exactly the right time.
