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What's the story?
Having cemented his legacy as one of the best Middleweight fighters' of all time, British MMA legend Michael Bisping retired from Octagon competition earlier in the year.
However, in a recent interview with Joe Rogan on his podcast, Bisping claimed that he wouldn't have called it a career after all, if he hadn't won the UFC Middleweight Title in the first place and would probably be still going strong inside the Octagon if hadn't won the World Championship.
In case you didn't know...
With an injury to Chris Weidman in the first place, it was Michael Bisping who stepped up to the plate at UFC 199 on 17 days notice, in order to face Luke Rockhold for the UFC Middleweight Championship, what was also a rematch between the two.
In what came in as a major shock, Bisping knocked out Rockhold in the first round to become the UFC Middleweight Champion in one of the most impressive wins in UFC history. The Brit eventually lost his title to Georges St. Pierre at UFC 217 before retiring from MMA three weeks later after losing to Kelvin Gastelum.
The heart of the matter
While speaking with Joe Rogan on The Joe Rogan Experience, former UFC Middleweight Champion, Michael Bisping claimed that he feels if he hadn't won the UFC Middleweight Championship in the first place, then he would probably still be fighting in the UFC.
“I wouldn’t have retired, I wouldn’t have retired yet. I’d know I could still do it. I could still fight now, but the time was right.”
Nonetheless, Bisping did admit that following his fight against Gastelum, he did start having issues with his eye and eventually decided to call it a career.
"I started having issues with my good eye as well after the [Kelvin] Gastelum fight, so I’m like, ‘this isn’t worth it. I see a tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny bit [out of my right eye]. I don’t really see out of it, and the vision’s very blurred. I mean, I was able to pass the tests. To be able to be cleared by a commission to fight, you’ve got to 2200 vision, which I was able to scrape by with the skin of my teeth. My doctor was always amazed that I could see to that amount. If I squinted in the right direction and I turned here (gestures) and the light was just right, I could just about make 2200.”
What's next?
Michael Bisping continues to work with the UFC as an analyst and the former World Champion will also be joining the UFC commentary team in the near future.
