If Michael Bisping’s life were a movie, it’s safe to say the credits would’ve rolled after UFC 199.
Bisping penned the closest thing imaginable to a storybook ending for his decade-long UFC career on Saturday, knocking out Luke Rockhold in the first round to capture the middleweight title.
The result shocked the MMA world, which cheered Bisping’s late addition to this fight on roughly two weeks’ notice after Chris Weidman fell out with an injury but didn’t give him a real chance to win.
It shocked the heavily favored Rockhold, who rolled in on a five-fight win streak that included his own stoppage win over Bisping in November 2014.
It shocked Bisping’s family, as his own son picked against him while the cameras were rolling for “UFC Embedded.”
From the looks of it, it shocked Bisping a little bit, too.
The victory made him the first British fighter to capture UFC gold. That seemed fitting, considering how important he had been to the company’s early European expansion efforts after winning Season 3 of The Ultimate Fighter in 2006.
The fact that he finally did it, at 37 years old, with no training camp to speak of and fighting essentially with one eye after suffering a detached retina in 2013 made the victory all the more awe-inspiring.
“I’m an average guy—more than average,” Bisping told UFC color commentator Joe Rogan in the cage after the fight. “This was my dream, nobody was taking this away from me. Two weeks’ notice? Two days, two hours, two minutes? I’ll fight anyone, anywhere.”
But Bisping’s life isn’t a movie, of course—and the picture didn’t fade to black as UFC matchmaker Sean Shelby wrapped the title around his waist. The credits didn’t roll as he kissed his wife and thanked the fans for their support.
Immediately following one of the biggest upsets in UFC history, he merely had to go on with his life, and now he’ll have to carry the title forward in the days and weeks to come.
And that’s where Bisping’s story gets really interesting, because this isn’t a man who fits neatly into the role of loveable underdog who shocks the world.
As with all things involving the bombastic Brit, it’s going to be a lot more complicated than that.
After dropping Rockhold twice with left hooks and then using a barrage of strikes to force a referee stoppage late in the first round, Bisping hopped on top of the Octagon fence to flex and soak up cheers from the astonished Los Angeles crowd.
In classic Bisping fashion, he also turned to point and shout obscenities at Rockhold, perhaps before the former champion had even gotten up off the mat.
An hour or so later, Bisping strutted fashionably late into the post-fight press conference—presumably after receiving medical attention—hauling his newly won UFC hardware and sipping a beer.
He gloated and taunted Rockhold, waving the title belt from the opposite side of the UFC’s podium so the American could get a good look at exactly what he’d lost. At times, Bisping turned serious, apologizing for “acting silly” and saying he respected Rockhold before immediately segueing back into insults and name-calling.
It was not classy. It was the opposite of classy. Frankly, it was exactly the sort of performance that had earned Bisping his longstanding reputation as one of the Octagon’s most disliked fighters (warning: video contains NSFW language):
For years after capturing the TUF 3 crown, Bisping was regarded as a churlish figure whose lofty position inside the promotion—along with his cocky swagger and continuous trash talk—made him a favorite target of his peers.
On the positive end of things, the man’s big mouth meant he was adept at selling a fight with just about anyone on the UFC’s roster. Bisping was always more than happy to transform an otherwise unremarkable pairing into a blood feud.
It just so happened he came out of those rivalries as the winner more often than not, too, amassing a 19-7 record in the UFC (29-7 overall).
He was also frequently branded as overrated, the teacher’s pet, and his antics seemingly made him unpopular among fellow fighters and fans outside his native England.
In recent years, however, Bisping had turned the tide of public opinion in his favor. He had stuck around the Octagon so long and proved himself such a tough customer that a large percentage of fans were finally granting him a begrudging respect.
We began to see his brash attitude for what it was—just an effective marketing tool. We learned he was a devoted family man and a capable fight analyst for Fox Sports.
Perhaps, we thought, Bisping was guilty of little more than understanding the business and promotional end of the fight game long before the rest of us got hip to it.
In the wake of that initial loss to Rockhold, he won three straight fights, including a hard-fought unanimous decision over the declining Anderson Silva in February. Since he was long regarded as one of the best UFC fighters never to get a shot at the title, it was a genuine feel-good moment when he was tabbed as the late assignment to fight Rockhold on Saturday.
Then Bisping became the world champion by crafting an upset that will live in UFC history, alongside Matt Serra’s 2007 win over Georges St-Pierre and Holly Holm’s KO of Ronda Rousey in 2015.
You couldn’t help but cheer for that, as noted by Bleacher Report’s Mike Chiappetta:
But by the time he arrived at the press conference with his beer bottle and Cheshire cat’s grin, it was as though his public image had taken an abrupt step backward.
“I believe I am the champion of the world, people,” Bisping crowed as he took his seat. “I hate to say, ‘I told you so.’ … Some say revenge is sweet. I disagree, I think it’s better than sweet.”
“Oh, right,” we all thought. This is why we always hated this guy.
Another complicating factor for Bisping—again, because his story doesn’t end here—is that now he’ll have to defend the UFC title. Once everyone is healthy, there will be a veritable murderers’ row lining up for the first shot at the underdog champion.
Weidman’s neck surgery may delay his return, but he’s expected to be back at 100 percent before the end of the year. Jacare Souza just had knee surgery but was set to be the consensus No. 1 contender for the Weidman-Rockhold winner before that fight fell apart.
Then there’s Rockhold himself, who is no less deserving of an immediate rematch than any of the other UFC champs who have lost their titles under surprising circumstances lately.
Much of the UFC 199 post-fight presser, in fact, felt like a preamble to Rockhold vs. Bisping III.
“I guess destiny is real,” Rockhold said, giving a nod to Bisping’s predictions that he would win this fight and become champion. “But it’s not going to last very long.”
The two men jawed throughout the news conference. In fairness, it wasn’t one-sided, either. Rockhold said just as many disparaging things about Bisping as Bisping said about him. For a while it seemed like pretty run-of-the-mill press conference beefing.
The situation continued to escalate after the event ended, however. In a video posted online by ESPN’s Arash Markazi, Bisping can be heard using a homophobic slur to refer to Rockhold (warning: NSFW language):
As reported by the Guardian, Bisping had made a practice of using that kind of hateful language in the past. It had been a while since we’d heard it from him, but here it was rearing its head again.
The total package made his Cinderella victory feel slightly less worthy of our wonder and admiration.
It turns out he may really be the guy we thought he was for so many years.
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