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Michael Bisping recently reflected on his iconic fight against Anderson Silva. The former UFC middleweight champion stated that he considered the bout against The Spider as his world title fight.
In an interview with ESPN's Ariel Helwani, Michael Bisping further opened up on his mindset going into the event. Bisping revealed that he thought he was going to be stepping away from the sport after facing Silva and went into the fight treating it as his world title bout.
"Yeah for me that was a very, very proud night. I always wanted to be the champion. When the Anderson Silva fight came along, I had never had a chance to fight for the belt and I had injuries and I thought I was gonna be stepping away from the sport pretty soon. So for me going into that fight, that was my world title fight," said Bisping.
Michael Bisping also added that he wanted to prove to everyone that he was capable of beating Silva on his best day. Despite Silva being removed only a few fights from his title loss to Chris Weidman, Bisping knew that a fight against The Spider was quite the big deal.
The former UFC middleweight champion revealed that he had to fight through some adversity in the lead-up to the victory over Silva. Michael Bisping added that the story of the fight was made better because of his face being a mess and covered in blood.
"At that point, the only person that had beaten him was Chris Weidman in the UFC. So for me, as I say my world title fight, I wanted to prove to everybody I could beat Anderson when he was the champion and he was only one fight removed or two fights removed from losing the belt," said Bisping.
"So it was a big, big deal. Obviously, I ended up winning the fight but I had to fight through some adversity, my face was a mess after it, I was covered in blood but I wouldn't have it any other way. It made the story of the fight so much better," Bisping added.
Michael Bisping and Anderson Silva shared the Octagon at the iconic O2 Arena in London back in 2016. It was Bisping who reigned supreme over The Spider after five grueling rounds on the night.
