This title defense didn’t go the way he planned, former UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping brutally loss at the main event of UFC 217 on Saturday, November 4 at Madison Square Garden New York, against Georges St-Pierre via third-round submission.
I am certainly down, but I am not out of fight game just yet.
"You've got to give it up to GSP"
"I'm not done"
Well said Michael Bisping… 👏#UFC217 pic.twitter.com/YGLUYyYO2p
— UFC on TNT Sports (@ufcontnt) November 5, 2017
He publicly flirted with the idea of retiring in the build-up to his title defense against Georges St-Pierre. After suffering the brutal loss, he brushes off any lingering doubt about those comments.
After the submission, he appeared for a post-fight press conference via MMA fighting:
“I don’t need time off, I’m fine,” Bisping said Saturday at the UFC 217 post-fight press conference. “I’ve got no injuries whatsoever; I’m not hurt at all. I’ve got a couple of little scuffs on my face, but nothing hurt me. Tonight was his night. Maybe (I’ll fight) March in London (at UFC Fight Night 127), that sounds nice. We’ll see.
“But listen, I love doing what I do. I’m from a small town in the northwest of England; I never thought I’d be headlining Madison Square Garden. And I’ll be damned if the last time I do it is me getting choked out on TV. So, it wasn’t my night, but that’s the way (it goes) with professional sports. One man or one team wins, and one man or one team loses.”
Michael Bisping held successfully five steak win before came to fight at UFC 217. Which is the best spell of his Pro MMA career and held wins over Luke Rockhold, Dan Henderson, and Anderson Silva.
Bisping performed well against St-Pierre, despite taken down couple down, but he throws several punches, sliced open several cuts eventually GSP started gushing blood from his face.
Iconic GSP returns to the Octagon nearly four years of hiatus and puts Michael Bisping to sleep in the third-round via rear-naked choke and won the title belt.
“I felt he was slowing down,” Bisping said. “Of course, he got me down in the second round. Any time you get taken down, you want to get back up, but I was landing a lot of good elbows from underneath and I was landing some punches from underneath. But even still, even though I was busting him up, I was still conscious of the fight, that you’re losing the fight in that position. Even though I was cutting him open, I knew I was losing the fight, so I thought, ‘Right now it’s time to get back up.’
“So I felt very positive in the fight then. Of course, he got me down, but I was able to get back up in the first (round) and in the second when I chose. So yeah, maybe my confidence was my demise. Maybe, but I did feel him slowing down. I could see it on his face, certainly when he started bleeding and things like that.”
GSP moved up to the 185-pound division of middleweight in the lead-up to UFC 217. Bisping noted that St-Pierre felt like a champ in the octagon.
“He looked like one as well,” Bisping said. “He looked huge. I said going into this; I said he’s probably the stronger man. He’s one of those types of guys. He’s a consummate professional, so yeah, he certainly felt like a middleweight when he had his arms wrapped around my neck.”
“It feels like yesterday, I was a champion of the world,” Bisping said wistfully. “Listen, I’m happy. I’m proud of what I’ve achieved in this sport. I really am, and you can’t take that away from me. My kids are over there, and they just said, ‘I thought you’d be more pissed off.’ And listen, of course, I’m pissed off. I’m crushed inside. I am.
“It’s a nice little consolation prize, but to answer your question, I’m happy. I’m happy with what I’ve done. Yeah, I’m crushed inside, but life goes on. Life goes on. Every time you fight, one man’s going to win, and one man’s going to lose. That’s what you sign up for. You can’t cry like a little b*tch. All respect to Georges. Well done, he beat me. I felt fantastic going in there tonight. I truly thought I was going to smoke him, and I didn’t, so well done.”
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