Michael Bisping

Michael Gavin Joseph Bisping (/ˈbɪspɪŋ/; born 28 February 1979) is an English actor, sports analyst, commentator and retired mixed martial artist, who competed in the Middleweight and Light Heavyweight division of the UFC. A professional competitor since 2004, he is a former UFC Middleweight Champion, a former Cage Rage Light Heavyweight Champion and The Ultimate Fighter 3 Light Heavyweight tournament winner. At UFC 78, he became the first British fighter to compete in a UFC main event. At UFC 199, he became the first British fighter to win a UFC Championship. He was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame on 5 July 2019. Bisping was born on a British military base in Nicosia, Cyprus and grew up in Clitheroe, Lancashire. He attended St Augustine's Roman Catholic High School, Billington. His Polish paternal grandfather, Andrew (Andrzej Bobola Bisping von Gallen), through his mother (Countess Marie Josepha Zamoyska), was a member of the noble Zamoyski Family of Poland. Many members of the noble families were pursued and executed by German Nazi forces during World War II; Andrew fled with his family from Poland to England after the German invasion in 1939. Bisping's father, Jan, was in the British Army; his mother is Irish. He began training Jujutsu at the age of eight. In 1994, at the age of 15, he competed as an amateur in Britain's first "no holds barred" competition, a precursor to modern MMA, called Knock Down Sport Budo (KSBO). At the age of 18, Bisping decided to abandon his martial arts training "to pursue real-life". Less than a year later, Bisping began training in boxing, kickboxing, and karate on the advice of Allan Clarkin, owner of Black Knights Kickboxing, who saw potential in him. 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, he was forced to abandon his full-time training for a "real job". In addition to working at factories, slaughterhouses, and demolition companies, he was also an upholsterer, postman, tiler, plasterer, and salesman.