Former UFC Middleweight Champion Michael Bisping has stated in the past that he would like to retire this March at UFC Fight Night London.
While no fight has been announced at this time, a soon to be retired Bisping claims that family and friends don’t want him to compete anymore.
“There’s a fight in the works for myself, and I’ve got until the end of the day to tell the UFC whether or not I’m taking it,” Bisping said on Believe You Me. “There’s an offer that’s been made to me, and all fairness to the UFC, I’ve been kind of taking my time to give them an answer so I’ve got until the end of the day to give them an answer. I’m just debating whether or not I take the fight. For me, whether or not those people can see, I have a bad eye. I have a bad eye and my wife doesn’t want me to continue fighting, and my manager doesn’t want me to continue fighting. I see out of that eye but not as well as I used to, and I’m still a young man so it’s kind of the reason I may hang the gloves up. My wife and manager and friends and people close to me say, ‘Mike, what do you want to do that for? You’ve done it. You’ve had the belt.’ I’ve done it. I’ve done what I set out to achieve. I kind of want to go do one last fight in England and they’re like, ‘So what? Five years from now or a year from now, people are gonna forget about all that and you can injure yourself even more.’ but you can injure yourself in any fight, whether or not you’re at 100% health or not. So that’s what we’re up to and I don’t know.”
Bisping says an opponent has been offered to him for the event, but has opted not to name that individual at this time.
The former champion admits that the payday from the fight is one of his biggest reasons for leaning towards fighting again.
“There’s the payday,” said Bisping. “I’ve got some lawsuit bullsh*t that’s still going on. I don’t know if you’re aware of this but lawyers are very expensive. Also, one doesn’t want to go out on my last fight, that being the lasting impression on my MMA career. Also, I kind of feel that I owe it to the U.K. fans because they were so supportive throughout my career. I always envisioned in my mind having that retirement fight in London and there it is on a plate. I just need to take it but everyone around me is telling me not to.”
UFC Fight Night London takes place on Saturday, March 17 from the 02 Arena in London, England with no main event announced at this time. Fightful is providing live coverage of the event, with broadcast plans yet to be announced.
