The Count Recently Revealed That He Spent Time in Maximum Security Prison in England… Now He Has Explained the Circumstances of His Arrest and the Lessons it Taught Him…
Michael Bisping has carved out one of the best MMA careers in the business. After years of being a journeyman at middleweight, fighting the best but just falling short of a title shot, he famously captured the belt after taking a fight against Luke Rockhold on two weeks notice.
That exposed him to a lot more fans and helped the first British UFC champion make his case for media jobs when he finally retired. Now, he’s a regular on the ESPN sports desk and has also been a frequent commentator. Meanwhile, the retired fighter is also balancing an acting career alongside his podcast. He’s a busy guy.
But it could all have been so different. He recently revealed at his Hall-of-Fame inauguration how he spent time in prison. If he didn’t learn from that experience he might never have walked down a path to redemption.
Hard Times
Speaking to Ariel Helwani, Bisping explained that as a young man he was constantly getting into fights. He was training in martial arts but didn’t have the focus or self-control to stay out of trouble. He explained why he’s never spoken about this before:
“I was never a criminal but I was always quick to get into a fight. Go figure, I became a professional fighter. But yea, I went to prison when Rebecca (his wife) was seven-months pregnant. So that was obviously a low point for me and for her. When I became a mixed martial artist, I didn’t want that to be the stigma. I didn’t want that to be ‘Oh look at this – another tough guy, another criminal or whatever coming in to cage fighting’.
Because you automatically assume things. So I never spoke about that because I wasn’t proud of that part of my life. I chose to forget it and put it behind me and become someone new. Now my journey is over. Well, my mixed martial arts journey is over. And, I’ve written a book. You know, it’s only fair to tell the truth.”
Bar Fight
It was a bar fight and he waded in to protect his friend. Unfortunately, the police didn’t see it that way. Bisping continued:
“Yea it was a bar fight. I went into a bathroom and my friend was on the floor getting his head kicked in by two people. So, what are you going to do? A fight starts and then it spilled outside and continued out there. Then a guy used a women as a human shield, as a distraction, as another guy was inching closer in my peripheral vision I could seem him. Maybe today with my vision being a little messed up I wouldn’t have seen him.
But back then I had perfect 20/20 vision and my peripheral was fine, the guy was inching closer with his fists clenched. I knew what he was going to do, and of course after years of martial arts training the one thing I chose to put him down with was a high kick to the head. Maybe a little bit of an overreaction, maybe I shouldn’t have done that, but shin on chin occurred. He went down. The cops pulled up. Long story short I went to prison for a while.”
No Fun
Ariel Helwani then asked Michael Bisping what prison was like. Needless to say, it wasn’t fun. Last week, Bisping explained on his podcast that for some reason he was initially put in maximum security before being moved to an open prison. He told Helwani:
“Well I’m going to surprise you here, it was sh*t!” Bisping responded. “I’m not in a rush to go back. Let’s just put it like that. It was terrible. First of all, for some reason I went to maximum security prison. 23 hours a day lockup. You got one hour out of your cell a day to walk around in circles. So, it wasn’t fun. But, it taught me some lessons. It really did. The judge that sent me down, did me a favor because I realized you can’t go through your life acting like this. So I mead some changes. Changed my friends. Changed my drinking habits. I became a better person.”
It’s fantastic that he was able to turn his life around and his criminal record was eventually wiped clean thanks to UK law, meaning he’s been able to carve out a life in the United States. Learn from your mistakes.
