Michael Bisping
Michael Bisping provided one of the greatest late-career resurgences in UFC history in 2016 when he KO’d Luke Rockhold in the first round to become the new middleweight champion after accepting the fight on short notice.
To cap it off he even avenged an infamously brutal loss to Dan Henderson in his first title defense, which would have been the perfect place to call time on his career and bow out at the top of the game.
However, when another legend Georges St-Pierre then specifically targeted him for a comeback title fight, Bisping couldn’t resist and paid the price when he subsequently lost his belt via a third round submission.
It had been a tough fight for ‘The Count’ in which he’d also been dropped on the feet, but despite concerns for his health he was eager to return quickly to get back to winning ways.
Against his better judgement the 38-year-old Bisping agreed to a late replacement fight with Kelvin Gastelum only three weeks later in China.
It seemed like a bad idea on paper and it turned out to be worse in reality, as Bisping ate a one-two combination mid-way through the first round that floored him, with his head then bouncing off the canvas several times as Gastelum ruthlessly hammered him with ground and pound punches.
Several months later Bisping announced his retirement, revealing that his ‘good eye’ had been damaged in the Gastelum fight, and with his other one already having well-documented problems he couldn’t risk taking another fight.
