Cage Rage Champ Bisping Eyes Bright Future
Michael Bisping Article
Pedro Wrobel Jan 8, 2005
As for the rivalry with Zikic, this is definitely an unfinished
issue.
"I really want to fight James again. One hundred percent. At first I didn't mind so much but since then I've watched the tape again and I don't like the way that James was looking at me. He came out and challenged me after my fight, and stood there eyeballing me. It was disrespectful, so maybe I can teach him some respect.
"Personally, I respect James
Zikic as an opponent. He's a technical guy, with good knowledge
of submissions, he boxed at a decent level as a pro -- he's a good
all-rounder. I've heard say that he's too timid, but hey, he drew
with Jeremy Horn in 2003.
You don't do that if you're not good. As for his striking -- well
he can't have been that good as a pro, or else why would he be
here? There is more money to be made in boxing, so I'm not
intimidated in the least. I can take him."
Bisping's association with Paul Lloyd Davies initially lasted from the age of 8 until 18, when Bisping quit the martial arts and decided to pursue real life. The love of competition never left him though, and it was only a short time before he found himself back in a gym, this time training in karate and kickboxing.
"I trained there for about a year on and off before I won the North West area title in kickboxing and then the Pro British. Then I gave it up again. I started going back there when I was about 20, had another few fights and then won the British light-heavyweight title again. Alan was a very good coach, but he didn't really show me anything that Paul hadn't already shown me."
"But it's all paid off, anyway. I recently won the British super-heavyweight WAKO belt again in March this year, against Barrington Patterson. He is a legend and it was great to fight him. Even better to beat him."
Despite these distractions, Bisping's break with Davies did signal a drift away from the world of fighting. Bisping ended up pursuing a variety of different occupations.
"I had some really crap jobs. I have been a tiler, a plasterer, a slaughterer, a postman, a door-to-door salesman, a demolition worker -- I actually enjoyed that one. And then I was an upholsterer. I actually had a chance of making some decent cash there, but it was really boring."
Boredom is not something that Bisping had ever really had to cope with -- either in fighting or in life. Cheerful, friendly and charismatic, with a larger-than-life personality that fills a room, Bisping has also had to live through his share of difficulties.
"Konrad, my older brother, was signing contracts with some pro rugby teams about two years back. He was in the army at the time and then someone stuck a pickaxe in his head. He is still in hospital, nearly blind and suffers from extreme agoraphobia. He was also a KSBO champion in his younger days, and a little but important part of my mission is and will always be for him.
"He was the Commanding Officer on an exercise on Salisbury Plain, ready for deployment to Iraq. One of his guys wasn't pulling his weight and my brother gave him a bollocking. On the break when they stopped and took off their helmets, he sneaked up behind Konrad and stuck a full-size pickaxe in his head. Konrad had to be flown to Southampton with the pickaxe still in his head. The doctors had to remove a square inch of dead brain. He was even given his last rites. He was going to die. Amazingly, 48 hours later he was sat up and asking for a cup of coffee. The doctors thought that it must have been due to the sheer size of him. He is 6-foot-6 and built like a brick shit house, but fit as a fiddle.
"The guy got locked up for assault. He was actually let off the charge of attempted murder because the court ruled that his IQ was so low that he didn't know that sticking a pickaxe in someone's head is likely to kill them. Unbelievable. He's out already, he got four years but did it all on remand. The law is an ass."
The tragedy seems to only have made Bisping stronger. It was around this point in time that Bisping had something of an epiphany.
"I'd just been drifting, you know? Last summer I started to think how it was a shame that I'd just walked away from something that I'd enjoyed so much, that I had so much success with as a youngster and now didn't do anything about. So I went about tracking Paul down over the Internet.
"I found one E-mail address for him -- I don't even remember where -- so I sent him an E-mail telling him that I was interested in training with him again. I heard nothing for a while and then one night I got a phone call from him.
"I knew nothing about MMA. I had never even seen the UFC. Paul told me a little bit about it and said he thought that I could make an impact, to say the least. So I went down to Nottingham and had one session with him. I didn't even know what the guard was -- I thought it was holding your hands up! Anyway, after that one session, and for whatever reason, Paul offered me a deal. I would move down to Nottingham for four days a week and he would sponsor me and train me. He would also help me financially as I would be giving up work. We hoped that in about two years we could make the project start to pay."
So here we are, barely a year and a half later, with the biggest British light-heavyweight title, a successful title defense, an undefeated record and a dream of bigger and better things still to come.
"There are so many doors opening up for me now, man, it's exciting. There will be a K-1 show in Birmingham in the middle of next year and they wanted me to come and fight. They originally wanted me for an eight-man heavyweight tournament, but Paul wasn't keen on that, given that I'm a natural light-heavy, so we've asked them to find us an opponent at my weight. Hopefully that'll go down. At the same time we're going to be speaking with promoters in Holland because, well, that's the gateway to the rest of the world, from a European perspective. They've got better fighters there, and better paydays! I want it all man."
And the ultimate goal?
"PRIDE. Oh yes."
And who, Mike, will be standing on the other side of the ring?
"I don't care. I really don't. I'm here to fight and to entertain and that's what I want to do, on as big a stage as I can.
"But for now, I just want to thank all my fans who have got behind me in 2004. Thank you so much, because without your support I wouldn't be here. I promise that I'll deliver bigger and better in 2005."
It's been one heck of a journey, but if you trust this writer even slightly, then trust me on this: There is more -- plenty more -- to come from Michael Bisping. Watch this space.
"I really want to fight James again. One hundred percent. At first I didn't mind so much but since then I've watched the tape again and I don't like the way that James was looking at me. He came out and challenged me after my fight, and stood there eyeballing me. It was disrespectful, so maybe I can teach him some respect.
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Bisping's association with Paul Lloyd Davies initially lasted from the age of 8 until 18, when Bisping quit the martial arts and decided to pursue real life. The love of competition never left him though, and it was only a short time before he found himself back in a gym, this time training in karate and kickboxing.
"I met a guy called Alan Clarking who runs the Black Knights gym in
Burnley. He was very impressed with me and invited me to train with
him. When I started to see less of my dad, I decided to go down to
his gym and check it out.
"I trained there for about a year on and off before I won the North West area title in kickboxing and then the Pro British. Then I gave it up again. I started going back there when I was about 20, had another few fights and then won the British light-heavyweight title again. Alan was a very good coach, but he didn't really show me anything that Paul hadn't already shown me."
"But it's all paid off, anyway. I recently won the British super-heavyweight WAKO belt again in March this year, against Barrington Patterson. He is a legend and it was great to fight him. Even better to beat him."
Despite these distractions, Bisping's break with Davies did signal a drift away from the world of fighting. Bisping ended up pursuing a variety of different occupations.
"I had some really crap jobs. I have been a tiler, a plasterer, a slaughterer, a postman, a door-to-door salesman, a demolition worker -- I actually enjoyed that one. And then I was an upholsterer. I actually had a chance of making some decent cash there, but it was really boring."
Boredom is not something that Bisping had ever really had to cope with -- either in fighting or in life. Cheerful, friendly and charismatic, with a larger-than-life personality that fills a room, Bisping has also had to live through his share of difficulties.
"Konrad, my older brother, was signing contracts with some pro rugby teams about two years back. He was in the army at the time and then someone stuck a pickaxe in his head. He is still in hospital, nearly blind and suffers from extreme agoraphobia. He was also a KSBO champion in his younger days, and a little but important part of my mission is and will always be for him.
"He was the Commanding Officer on an exercise on Salisbury Plain, ready for deployment to Iraq. One of his guys wasn't pulling his weight and my brother gave him a bollocking. On the break when they stopped and took off their helmets, he sneaked up behind Konrad and stuck a full-size pickaxe in his head. Konrad had to be flown to Southampton with the pickaxe still in his head. The doctors had to remove a square inch of dead brain. He was even given his last rites. He was going to die. Amazingly, 48 hours later he was sat up and asking for a cup of coffee. The doctors thought that it must have been due to the sheer size of him. He is 6-foot-6 and built like a brick shit house, but fit as a fiddle.
"The guy got locked up for assault. He was actually let off the charge of attempted murder because the court ruled that his IQ was so low that he didn't know that sticking a pickaxe in someone's head is likely to kill them. Unbelievable. He's out already, he got four years but did it all on remand. The law is an ass."
The tragedy seems to only have made Bisping stronger. It was around this point in time that Bisping had something of an epiphany.
"I'd just been drifting, you know? Last summer I started to think how it was a shame that I'd just walked away from something that I'd enjoyed so much, that I had so much success with as a youngster and now didn't do anything about. So I went about tracking Paul down over the Internet.
"I found one E-mail address for him -- I don't even remember where -- so I sent him an E-mail telling him that I was interested in training with him again. I heard nothing for a while and then one night I got a phone call from him.
"I knew nothing about MMA. I had never even seen the UFC. Paul told me a little bit about it and said he thought that I could make an impact, to say the least. So I went down to Nottingham and had one session with him. I didn't even know what the guard was -- I thought it was holding your hands up! Anyway, after that one session, and for whatever reason, Paul offered me a deal. I would move down to Nottingham for four days a week and he would sponsor me and train me. He would also help me financially as I would be giving up work. We hoped that in about two years we could make the project start to pay."
So here we are, barely a year and a half later, with the biggest British light-heavyweight title, a successful title defense, an undefeated record and a dream of bigger and better things still to come.
"There are so many doors opening up for me now, man, it's exciting. There will be a K-1 show in Birmingham in the middle of next year and they wanted me to come and fight. They originally wanted me for an eight-man heavyweight tournament, but Paul wasn't keen on that, given that I'm a natural light-heavy, so we've asked them to find us an opponent at my weight. Hopefully that'll go down. At the same time we're going to be speaking with promoters in Holland because, well, that's the gateway to the rest of the world, from a European perspective. They've got better fighters there, and better paydays! I want it all man."
And the ultimate goal?
"PRIDE. Oh yes."
And who, Mike, will be standing on the other side of the ring?
"I don't care. I really don't. I'm here to fight and to entertain and that's what I want to do, on as big a stage as I can.
"But for now, I just want to thank all my fans who have got behind me in 2004. Thank you so much, because without your support I wouldn't be here. I promise that I'll deliver bigger and better in 2005."
It's been one heck of a journey, but if you trust this writer even slightly, then trust me on this: There is more -- plenty more -- to come from Michael Bisping. Watch this space.
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