Former UFC Middleweight Champion Michael Bisping suffered a first round knockout loss to Kelvin Gastelum in the main event of UFC Fight Night Shanghai.
Despite taking the fight on late notice, the former champion admits that taking the bout was a mistake in the end.
“That fight was me trying to exorcise some inner demons and try and get back in the win column ASAP,” Bisping explained on Believe You Me. “As I said, it was a huge gamble and for many reasons it was the wrong move, but I don’t regret it. If you look at the grand scheme of things . . . I can see that it was the wrong move, but at the time it felt right, so I don’t regret it. After the GSP fight, when I agree to take the Kelvin Gastelum fight, I thought, ‘Well, I just had a week off but I was in great shape, so let’s get right back to it,’ and I sparred everyday for a week. That’s all I did for Kelvin, Southpaws, five rounds, for five days, and then I flew out to China, and I was just done. Emotionally, physically, mentally, I was just spent.”
Bisping did fight earlier in the month at UFC 217 and he was choked unconscious in the third round by Georges St. Pierre.
The loss may have hurt his shot at another piece of UFC gold, but Bisping isn’t looking to win another title anyway.
“I’m not looking to become champion again, I’m looking to finish off my career with a couple of fun fights. I went out there, I didn’t get the job done. I couldn’t give a f**k about rankings. I’m not trying to be the champion again. I had that, that was fun, it was a nice time in my life, I can always claim to have had that title, and now it’s time to move on with my life. I’m totally fine with it. I’m 38 years old. I’ve got a wife and kids. I’ve got other things I want to focus on in life. Will I do one more fight? Yeah, probably. But that phase of my life now is done and I’m happy with that. . . You can’t fight forever. I was a champion, no one remains a champion forever, and I’m proud of that,” says Bisping.
With over a decade of time spent inside the UFC, the former middleweight champion may be retiring this coming March in his native London.
