Michael Bisping

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Michael Bisping
Statistics
Nickname The Count
Height 6 ft. 1 in. (184 cm)
Weight 205 lb (93 kg)
Nationality United Kingdom British
Born February 28, 1979
Fighting out of Liverpool, England
Town of birth Cyprus
Fighting style Kickboxing
Mixed martial arts record
Wins 11
  By knockout 7
  By submission 4
Losses 0
Draws 0

Michael Gavin Joseph Bisping (born February 28, 1979 in Cyprus) is an English professional mixed martial arts fighter from Liverpool. Holding a professional record of 11 wins, 0 losses, he currently fights for the Ultimate Fighting Championship, is presently the Cage Warriors Fighting Championship Light-Heavyweight Champion, and former Cage Rage Light Heavyweight Champion.

Contents

[edit] Biography

Bisping was born on a British military base in Cyprus in 1979, but moved to Lancashire, England when he was a child. Taking an early interest in martial arts, Bisping began training in a traditional form of jiu-jitsu known as Yawara Ryu, under Paul Lloyd Davies when he was 8 years old. In 1994 at the age of 15, Bisping competed as an amateur in England's first "No Holds Barred" competition, a precursor to modern MMA, called Knock Down Sport Budo (KSBO), organized by Davies.

At the age of 18, Bisping decided to abandon his martial arts training in order to "to pursue real life". [1] But less than a year later, Bisping began training kickboxing and karate on the advice of Alan Clarking, owner of Black Knights gym, who saw potential in the young fighter. Bisping enjoyed a short but successful kickboxing career, winning the North West Area Title, and later the Pro British Light Heavyweight Kickboxing Title. After again briefly quitting competition in 1998, Bisping returned to kickboxing to take the Pro British Light Heavyweight Title for a second time. Soon after winning his second kickboxing title, Bisping was forced to abandon his fulltime training for a "real job", working as a postman, a demolition worker, and a salesman.

As his days of competition faded away, Bisping grew to miss fighting and training, and in 2003, he tracked down his old coach Paul Lloyd Davies. Davies, who was then running a mixed martial arts gym in Nottingham, encouraged Bisping to visit his gym, and it was there that Bisping first learned about the new sport of mixed martial arts. After one day of sparring, Davies offered to train and manage Bisping as a MMA fighter.

Bisping made his professional mixed martial arts debut at Pride & Glory 2: Battle of the Ages in April 4th, 2004, taking a 0:38 armbar victory over Steve Mathews. Just one month later, Bisping scored his first knockout against John Weir at the UK MMA Challenge 7 - Rage & Fury. In his third MMA match, Bisping became the Cage Rage Light Heavyweight champion at Cage Rage 7, defeating Mark Epstein by technical knockout. Bisping would go on to defend his championship title in a rematch against Epstein at Cage Rage 9 in a knockout victory that solidified Bisping as one of the top Light Heavyweight fighters in England, it also earned him the moniker "The Great British Hope", by UFC.com.

At The Ultimate Fight Club UK: Natural Instinct on 29th January 2005, Bisping made his cage kickboxing debut against David Brown in a Light-Heavyweight contest. With Brown badly cut, Bisping picked up the win via medical stoppage in round two.

Bisping, who trains for the Wolfslair MMA Academy, the Pro-Fight Team of Cage Warriors Fighting Championship, made his debut for the promotion at Ultimate Force on April 30th, 2005, defeating Dave Radford to win the vacant Cage Warriors Light-Heavyweight title. Bisping would also compete in another Light-Heavyweight cage kickboxing contest, against Cyrille Diabaté at CWFC Strike Force 1 on 21st May, 2005, with Diabaté victorious via decision after the end of the first extra round. In his first Cage Warriors title defence, Bisping defeated Miika Mehmet at CWFC Strike Force 2, on July 16th, 2005.

In September 2005, Cage Rage stripped their Light-Heavyweight title from Bisping due to "management issues that Michael currently has" [2], though Cage Warriors however stated that "Bisping was willing to defend his title but is being punished by Cage Rage due to his Wolfslair and Cage Warriors links". [3] Towards the end of 2005, Bisping continued to successfully defended the Cage Warriors title against Jakob Lovstad, and Ross Pointon in the CWFC Strike Force series of events, with a now 10-0-0 record.

In early-2006, Bisping was featured on the UFC's The Ultimate Fighter television series as a contestant training under Tito Ortiz. He won a preliminary victory against Kristian Rothaermel by TKO, and followed with a semi-final win against the aforementioned Ross Pointon, by striking submission after landing a flying knee followed by a series of strikes. In the finals, Bisping defeated Josh Haynes by way of TKO at 4:14 into the second round, making Bisping the second Light Heavyweight winner of The Ultimate Fighter television series.

Five months after his victory in the TUF 3 final, Bisping was slated to fight Eric Schafer at The Ultimate Fighter 4 Finale. Bisping was forced to withdraw from the contest, possibly due to issues with processing his visa. [1] The fight is now re-scheduled to be held on Decemeber 30 at UFC 66.

Bisping was a special guest referee at the Cage Warriors events Enter The Wolfslair on March 5th, 2005, and CWFC Strike Force 6 on 27th May, 2006. [4]

[edit] Training Background

In an interview with Pedro Wrobel in January 2005, published at Sherdog.com (see link below), Bisping talks about his training background:

"I started off with a form of traditional jiu-jitsu. The association was called Yawara Ryu, and it was run by Paul Lloyd Davies". Yawara Ryu is a complete jiu-jitsu system, with strikes (punches, elbows, knees and kicks), throws, take downs, and submissions.

Bisping trained in Yawara Ryu from the age of 8 until 18. During this time, he competed in the Knock Down Sport Budo (KSBO) event, a forerunner of the fully-fledged MMA competitions in the UK.

"Paul used to run the KSBO competitions, and I competed. KSBO was the first MMA event to be held in the country. It was where Lee Hasdell, James Zikic and myself learnt our trade. It started in about 1994."

When he was 18 he stopped training in martial arts altogether and after a short time began training in karate and kickboxing. He trained with Alan Clarking at the Black Knights gym in Burnley for about a year.

Bisping then won the North West area title in kickboxing and the Pro British. After another short break he resumed training when he was about 20, and went on to win the British light-heavyweight title for the second time.

Bisping admits to have been drifting again, until he actively sought out contact again with Paul Lloyd Davies in the summer of 2004:

"I'd just walked away from something that I'd enjoyed so much, that I had so much success with as a youngster and now didn't do anything about … I knew nothing about MMA. I had never even seen the UFC. Paul told me a little bit about it and said he thought that I could make an impact, to say the least. So I went down to Nottingham and had one session with him. I didn't even know what the guard was: I thought it was holding your hands up! Anyway, after that one session, and for whatever reason, Paul offered me a deal. I would move down to Nottingham for four days a week and he would sponsor me and train me. He would also help me financially as I would be giving up work. We hoped that in about two years we could make the project start to pay."

The close association with Lloyd Davies ended when Bisping moved to the Wolfslair Gym, where he currently trains.

[edit] Personal Information

Bisping has two children, Callam and Emma with his girlfriend.

[edit] Mixed Martial Arts Record

11 wins (7 KO's, 4 submissions, 0 decisions), 0 losses.
Date Result Opponent Method Event Round, time Notes
6/24/2006 Win Josh Haynes TKO (Strikes) The Ultimate Fighter 3 Finale Round 2, 4:14 Won the Ultimate Fighter 3 Light Heavyweight Championship
11/26/2005 Win Ross Pointon Submission (Armbar) CWFC - Strike Force 4 Round 1, 2:00
10/1/2005 Win Jakob Lovstad Submission (Strikes) CWFC - Strike Force 3 Round 1
7/16/05 Win Miika Mehmet TKO (Corner Stoppage) CWFC - Strike Force 2 Round 1, 3:01
6/18/2005 Win Alex Cook Submission (Choke) FX3 - Xplosion Round 1, 3:21
4/30/2005 Win Dave Radford TKO CWFC - Ultimate Force Round 1, 2:46
11/27/2004 Win Mark Epstein TKO Cage Rage 9 - No Mercy Round 3, 4:43
8/7/2004 Win Andy Bridges KO Pride & Glory 3 - Glory Days Round 1
7/10/2004 Win Mark Epstein TKO Cage Rage 7 - Battle of Britain Round 2, 1:27 Became Cage Rage Light Heavyweight Champion
5/30/2004 Win John Weir TKO UKMMAC 7-Rage & Fury Round 1
4/10/2004 Win Steve Mathews Submission (Armbar) Pride & Glory 2 - Battle of the Ages Round 1, 0:38

[edit] References

  1. ^ Pedro Wrobel (2005). Cage Rage Champ Bisping Eyes Bright Future. www.sherdog.com. Retrieved on September 17, 2006.
  2. ^ Cage Rage (2005). Cage Rage strips "The Count" Mike Bisping of his Cage Rage British Light-Heavyweight Title. www.cagerage.tv. Retrieved on September 17, 2006.
  3. ^ Cage Warriors (2005). CWFC Statement Concerning Mike Bisping. www.cagewarriors.com. Retrieved on September 17, 2006.
  4. ^ cage Warriors (2006). Michael "The Count" Bisping To Referee At Strike Force 6. www.cagewarriors.com. Retrieved on September 17, 2006.

[edit] External links


The Ultimate Fighter - Season 3
Michael Bisping | Tait Fletcher | Jesse Forbes | Matt Hamill | Josh Haynes | Noah Inhofer | Mike Nickels | Kristian Rothaermel | Danny Abbadi | Kendall Grove | Ed Herman | Solomon Hutcherson | Ross Pointon | Rory Singer | Kalib Starnes | Mike Stine

Coaches: Tito Ortiz | Ken Shamrock


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