November 15, 2025 • 32 mins
Recorded: February 8, 2024 | On this episode of Best of the Bus, The Boys were joined by UFC legend Michael Bisping. Michael opened up about his journey to the UFC and how a trip to jail completely changed the trajectory of his life. The guys then dove into some of Bisping’s most memorable fights, discussing which moments stuck with him the most and whether any of those wars left lasting effects.
They also talked about his transition into the media side of the UFC and how he found his voice as an analyst. To wrap things up, Bisping gave his thoughts on the upcoming Chandler vs. McGregor fight and what fans should expect.
Michael was hilarious throughout and told some unbelievable stories, making this an all-time episode. Big hugs, tiny kisses.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
So you know what I mean, well spoken individual, are
so well spoken.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
You have a good show on you too.
Speaker 3 (00:07):
I keep myself busy. Yeah, you've done a great job
transitioning fight. Thank you very much.
Speaker 4 (00:14):
Yeah, I mean as as a former fighter or like
all athletes. I mean, you guys did very well. But
fighters in particularly, it's a hard road, you know what
I mean. And then not a lot of fighters make money,
you know, there's only the tip of the iceberg. And
I'm not talking about in the UFC. I mean to
get to the UFC. I mean that in itself is
very hard, you know, but to really be able to
(00:35):
retire comfortably, you know, only the only a select few
get to do that, you know, in in any professional sports.
I mean, if you look at soccer, right, how many
people play soccer, you know, and how many people get
to actually really make a living. So yeah, retiring as
a fighter still being involved with the sport, commentating in
the UFC, it couldn't have worked out any better.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
And I'm a very happy man. Do you feel like
you retired comfortably?
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (00:59):
Yeah, no, for sure.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
At the time.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
Yeah, yeah, no, I had a great career, you know,
I mean I was able to win the belt, defend
it out some championship fights. You know, I was repping
the UK for a long time as well. So I
had a great career. I had a long run. Yeah. Yeah,
very comfortably. I mean, you can always be more comfortable. Question. Yeah,
you know what I'm saying and over again. Yeah, Dana
(01:21):
always looked after me and I always did very well.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Did Were you doing any of the media stuff while
you were fighting or was that a transition you made
right when you got done.
Speaker 4 (01:30):
No, so I was doing it whilst I was fighting
as well. Is this sound okay for you guys? Close enough? Yeah?
So so you probably know maybe you don't so I
don't see my right eye the yeah, yeah story. So,
so when I started having the I issues, because obviously
you want to be a champion and all the rest
of it, When I started having the I issues and
I was told I was never going to be able
(01:50):
to fight again, and I did carry on fighting, and
I was lying and cheating on tests and all the
rest of it, doing whatever I could, right, But I
was like, this isn't going to last forever. I've got
to figure out I can. I know my door is closing,
the options are going to go away soon. So I
started doing as much of that stuff as I could,
working on Fox Sports at the time, and then started
a podcast and then just whatever else I could do
(02:12):
whilst I still had a platform and whilst people still
gave it that. You know what I'm saying, because when
you desire your old.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
News it was if it wasn't for the eye, do
you think you would have had the idea to kind of, Okay,
I need to find out some different avenues because as
as athletes, like for me, there was never a play
b you kind of just think I'm gonna play football
and then I'll die on the field your greatest order
to go out that way, not for sure, and that's
always the goal, that's what you want to do.
Speaker 4 (02:35):
You got to be single minded to be successful and
to be great at anything, You've got to be lied that.
But of course you'd be a fool not to realize
that there's a life after fighting, you know. I mean,
I think it was two thousand and nine I started
doing a little bit of acting and stuff like that.
I never thought I'd end up doing that, but I
just got offered an acting roll out of the blue,
so I was like, yeah, fucking why not, let's give
it a shot. The next thing, I'm in Austin, Texas,
(02:57):
spent my per day and for the Inside issue. On
the first night with my buddy, we had a great
night out turned the post. I hung over to the mics,
thinking what am I doing here, but then ended up
loving the entire process and done that stuff ever since
as well. So yeah, I mean I always kind of
had part in the pun, one eye on doing other stuff.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Nice. Now that's about the legacy.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
We were a little birdie totalist that you had a
DJ career DJ mikey Be.
Speaker 4 (03:25):
It's nothing to write home about. So yeah, I mean, listen,
I was obsessed with martial arts as a kid, and
then one day I was walking home from work when
I was sixteen, and my buddy had a set of decks.
I went into his house and you know, they were
smoking weed and stuff. I was never a weed smoker,
but I saw the decks and the turntables and I
just thought that was the coolest thing ever at sixteen,
(03:45):
So I stopped doing martial arts and became DJ mikey Bee.
I put all my effort into that, and I had
a little bit of a you know, following or whatever.
I did okay for a while, but but you know, nothing,
nothing to write home about.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
You know what.
Speaker 4 (03:59):
I still spin the turntables a bit for fun when
I'm bored. I might do the occasional set here and there,
but I've hung up the records a long time ago.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
You stopped MMA so that you were doing the DJ stuff,
and then I was like, okay, let me get back
into the fighting.
Speaker 4 (04:12):
Yeah. Yeah, well I wasn't doing mm A. I was
doing martial arts. You know, a lot of martial arts
tournaments and stuff. But so yeah, I put all my
efforts into being a DJ. And then I met my
girlfriend who's now my wife, and we had two children,
and then I was like, yeah, I don't think this
is happening, you know what I mean. There were some
pretty rundown venues in the northwest of England, you know
(04:34):
what I mean. We're not exactly talking excess at the wind.
This is not what we're talking about, guys, Vegas. I
don't even know about that. Get to it, Betha, you
know Bezas Yeah, yeah, yeah no. And then when the
kids came along, I was like, what am I doing
with myself? And I was always getting into scraps, you know,
(04:56):
on fights. When I was a kid, I was that
was that kind of guy. And then I actually I
went to prison. I got sent down for twenty eight days.
And it was when I was sitting in the holding
cell waiting to be assigned by cell. I was sitting there,
I was thinking, what is going on? What is how
I ended up here? And I'm sitting in this holding
cell and there's old drug addicts and dead beats around me,
(05:16):
and they're like, look coming up, Dren, went you in
for me?
Speaker 3 (05:19):
You know?
Speaker 4 (05:19):
And I'm like, don't talk to me, stay away from
I'm not one of you. And I thought to myself,
I've got to make a change. And right then and there,
that's when I kind of got my act together. And
I'm actually grateful for that judge for doing that, because
I was just reckless and didn't really give a damn.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
How do we get in there?
Speaker 4 (05:37):
Just I was fighting?
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Yeah, how old are you?
Speaker 4 (05:40):
What was I twenty two, twenty three? Something like that.
I was always getting fights. I'm from a small town.
Everyone knows everyone's business. Ever since I was a kid,
I always you know, I was just that kind of kid.
I was always down for a fight, and I was
young and I was reckless, and I thought it was
all fun and games, you know what I mean. You know,
(06:01):
I was very immature, let's.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Be honest, you know.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
So it really was a wig up calling. It is
what the prison SYSM was supposed to be. It's like, oh,
why need to snap out of it? And it worked
on me one hundred percent, yeah, one hundred percent.
Speaker 4 (06:10):
Yeah. So I came out of there and never threw
another punch on the street, just decided to start doing
it professionally. But I didn't find my way to mixed
martial arts then because MMA wasn't really a thing. The
UFC existed, but I wasn't a fan. But then my
old to use an old term sense told me all
about the explosion of something called mixed martial arts and
(06:34):
the UFC and in Japan they had Pride and I
didn't even know what it was. I said, can you
make money? And he said, listen to the champions are
making great money, the celebrities in America that they got
getting into acting and all this kind of stuff. So
we said this whole He painted this whole picture, and
I thought, that's what I want. So I signed up
for my first fight three months later, didn't even know
what the sport was, got the knockout. Two years later,
(06:56):
I was on the Ultimate Fire. Won that next minute.
Here we are talking busting in with bussing with the boy, right?
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Was that the big break was getting on the Ultimate Fighter?
Speaker 4 (07:08):
Oh? For sure, of course, you know, firing on the
regional scene if you will, that's what they call it
in the UK. I mean, I was the Cage Warriors Champion.
I was a cage Race champion. I was the what
was it any promotion that was in the UK. I
was the champion of as well as the super heavyweight
kickboxing champion. I used to be a bit of a
fat bastard, so yeah, I mean, so then they came
(07:30):
to the UK looking for two guys to be on
The Ultimate Fight to season three, and then we had
these open auditions and had the auditions all the other
people in my weight class. I knocked them all out,
you know what I mean. So I was kind of
confident that I was going to get it. And then
of course I'm allowed my mouth piece of shit as well,
So you want to better drama? So yeah, yeah, there
you go. How was The Ultimate Fighter structured?
Speaker 1 (07:52):
Then? Was everybody in the same house. Still, was it
kind of a reality TV show to go with it
as well?
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (07:55):
Yeah, for sure, Yeah, absolutely, And I loved it. I mean,
come on, listen, never been to America. They're going to
fly me to America. I'm sitting in a big, beautiful
mansion with a bunch of guys. We're getting paid to
train and work out. And you walk in and being
coached by Ts and Ken Shamrock and day in a
whites there. I'm like, shit, this is it. This is
really happening. And a lot of people on the show
(08:16):
they were there for the fifteen minutes of fame, you know,
But I was. I was there to kick some ass
and win, you know, and fortune early with a bit
of luck, that's what I was able to do.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
So when you go to when you go through the
Ultimate Fighter and you get that bid to go in
the UFC, you said earlier you were really a fan
of UFC.
Speaker 4 (08:31):
When did you become like this is this organization? Really?
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Wasn't that money in his pocket? This is not?
Speaker 4 (08:39):
Actually yeah, it was a fast I just didn't even
really know it existed. I remember I was a World
Championships in nineteen ninety five when I was sixteen and
we were staying in a youth hostel in Auckland, and
I remember in the kitchen in the youth hostel, they
were all watching I think it was like UFC two
or three or something. And I wasn't really interested, not
because I wasn't a fan. I was just, you know,
(09:00):
I was a kid and whatever, and I was too
busy going out with my friends and partying and stuff.
But as soon as I knew there was a viable
career option, and I knew I was getting older and
I'd been in trouble with the law and I left
school at sixteen, I was like, this is probably the
only way I'm going to make something out of my life,
you know, because I always said, like, you know, getting
(09:21):
on your lecturer's high horse. But everyone's good at something,
everyone's got a skill. And I remember I remember my
supervisor at the time at work. I was working at
this sofa factory, just like making couches and stuff, and
he said, what are you going to do for the
rest of your life? Michael? He said, you want to
do this? I said, no way, And he said, well,
you know, you think about it. Because I walked into
(09:42):
this factory thirty years ago, and it flown by light
that I said, you're still a young man. So I
started thinking. I said, what am I good at? What
am I good at? And I've always been good at fighting.
I was always good at martial arts. I was always
in street fights. I'm ashamed to say now, but I was.
You know, I was very it's successful. Let's just put
it like that without sounding like a quick So I
(10:05):
said to him, I'll never forget. I walked up to
him and I said, Mick, Mick, I said, I figured
out what I'm going to do. And he takes his
he's got his two belts on. He takes his two
belts off, and he walks off, rubbin his hanse come
on because he was kind of like a mentor, and
he's like, okay, what's the plan. I said, I'm going
to be a professional fighter. And he was like, oh
my god, I thought you were a smart kid. I'm like,
(10:27):
just me, I know what I'm doing.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
So anyway to make the call back to him, like hey.
Speaker 4 (10:33):
Clean enough. I was googling him last week because I
was talking about this to my wife, about Mick Killeen.
But no, no, I don't. I don't know what happened
to him. Well, you know, I don't think I had
as much of an impact on him as he had
on me. Yeah, it's funny, isn't it. You know that
these people come into your lives that can make a
big impression and they might not realize it, you know,
(10:55):
like a teacher to a troubled high school kid or whatever.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
You know.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
Yeah, there you go.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
You've had a lot of incredible fights, like what lost
pisses you off the most?
Speaker 4 (11:05):
Or what lost? None of them? To be honest, none
of them pissed me off. I mean I'm forty four
now so and I've been midsized twenty eighteen, so you know,
I don't spend I don't keep myself up at night
stewing over them. But what passed me off?
Speaker 2 (11:19):
Which one had the most residual effects?
Speaker 4 (11:21):
Been times past? Yeah, yeah, I don't again, good question.
I mean the Vanderalaier silver Fire was bullshit. I won
that fire, I was robbed, and yeah, I love that.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
Nothing really makes me mad, But you're digging deep into
the you know, fuck Vandalai.
Speaker 4 (11:44):
No, No, yes, that one, I guess because Vandalai is
a legend of the sport, and he was actually one
of the guys that when I started discovering what MMA was,
I saw vanderlay files. Oh my gosh, this guy's amazing.
Look at this guy, and I wanted to be like him.
And then so to fire him was a big deal,
you know. And I thought I won the fight, but whatever,
(12:05):
it didn't go my way.
Speaker 3 (12:06):
Yeah, he had all the training videos where he's like
training with the snorkel and ship right.
Speaker 4 (12:09):
Like, yeah, he did a lot of he did a
lot of steroids as well. You know, they're the ones,
you know what I mean, the Vito belfour one. Obviously
I lost an eyeball through that because he's a cheating
piece of ship, you know, so I guess there's a
few can go fuck himself. He was like every performance
(12:31):
enhancing drug under the sun. I love Jail. He's cool.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
Because he's malthy too, Like.
Speaker 4 (12:39):
I wish I could have he never did because we
were both fighting on the same card, but we had
different opponents. And then for whatever reason it's a long story,
somebody drops out, so they rejiggled the card and I
was fighting Jail and this was like ten days before
the fight, so we didn't really have time to turning
him to manifest or to brew. You know, there was
(12:59):
no bad feelings, couldn't you know arise? It was like
before we knew it. We were in Chicago, were stepping
on the scale, remember our square up to jail on
the ways, and you know you're trying and do your bit,
like you get in his face and yeah, fucking dead
that type of stuff. I'm in there because I always
(13:24):
used to give not give him a head, bob, but
just like a little just a little touch, you know,
because you're trying to insert your last minute dominance, you know.
And ChIL just said, what colonna are you wearing? You
smelled delightful? Son of a bitch? You talk about these
dudes taking PD steroid stuff like that?
Speaker 1 (13:44):
Was it easy when you got your hands on guys
to feel like, Okay, you got something going on?
Speaker 4 (13:48):
Extra do you don't what? To be honest, there's only
one fire that I ever felt overpowered in, even though
I know for a fact I fought a lot of
guys that were using because for a while there was
to sell strong replacement therapy, which was legal. They were
allowed to do that if you went to a doctor
and the doctor signed off on it. There you got
boom you were in and I've never taken anything in
(14:08):
my life, but even still there was I guess Vito
was like ridiculously powerful and explosive with his striking. But
when we clanched up or anything. There's only one guy
that I thought, who's called Matt Hammill. That was a
death fighter that warped my ass in round one. And
I was like a little school boy with him. But
he was on steroids or anything like that. He was
just a good old forem boy.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 4 (14:31):
That give me a good old ass kickid God bless him.
Speaker 3 (14:34):
Wasn't just the testa like the TRT that was like
the issue, like what what?
Speaker 2 (14:38):
How was everybody? How people able access as so much?
Speaker 4 (14:41):
I have no idea, I have not I'm not an
expert on that stuff, but it was rife. I know
it was everyone. You know, everyone's aware with that because
the drug testing back then was kind of like an
IQ test. You know, now we have what we had,
you Sawa, we have another program now where the show
randomly the tests you and you know he's very in
depth and very safe. Back then, it was not all fights.
(15:03):
The main event. Maybe the Colemane. You had to take
a piss test after the fight.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
You know.
Speaker 4 (15:08):
So if you're smart enough, you know how to cycle
it and get it out of your system. But I
was always so young and confident. I was like, I
don't give a shit, I don't care whatever.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
I'm going to get him.
Speaker 3 (15:17):
Anyone ever thought about it, well, I'm taking anything right,
like trying to figure out what?
Speaker 4 (15:22):
Never. I remember when I was coming up in the UK,
you know it, The UK scene back then was like
the wild West, trust me, like, you know, anyone involved
in mixed martial arts back then the world gangsters and
drug dealers and thugs and whatnot. You know, it wasn't
the professional scene it is now, let me tell you.
And there was a lot of people all taking steroids
on my team and stuff like that. But in my mind,
(15:43):
I was always like, well, number one, I don't want
to do that. I don't need to do that. But
I'm going to the UFC. I'm not here to be
a tough guy in my hometown. I'm going to the UFC,
and I don't want to test positive and get banned,
you know what I mean. So, and of course, ethically, ethically,
of course you.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
Know with the ethically part, but everybody's doing it. It's
got to be hard like baseball, and how do you
keep it secret to like you know, dudes are taking it.
Speaker 3 (16:09):
And I was like this guy like that lancet arm
showing where you realize like literally every cyclist was on
something Like he was just a guy who was like you.
Speaker 4 (16:17):
Yeah, when you're defeated, and this is the thing that
you'll see like eliasa Porius fighting next week and you
have two nine eight and he is bringing with confidence.
He's talking about knocking Bolkanovsky in one round and how
he's not even going to be a fight, because that's
how you are when you're undefeated. Like I was smoking everybody,
you know, I was knocking everyone out in the first round,
and you know, I didn't really have a fight, And
(16:38):
I was like the fucking you know, because when you're undefeated,
you literally feel like no one on earth can beat you,
and it's just what it does to you. And every
time you compete and you win, that is that that
that mindset is further solidified. So I was like, well,
help me knock yourself out, give me the best shot.
You know, until you start getting knocked out yourself eyes
(16:58):
and dribbling, you know what I mean? Doing this dumbling word.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
Yeah, doesn't change your game, like when you first got out.
Who was the who was the first of the video
was the.
Speaker 4 (17:06):
Show Henderson UFC one. So we coached the Ultimate Fighter
passion Yeah, no, no, listen for a player was on
testasrow replacement therapy. That's noted and in the books it's true.
It's true. No, No, God blessing me got me good
because we coached the Ultimate Fighter. I talked a ton
(17:27):
of shit because Dan Henderson is literally like watching pain dry,
So somebody had to make that show exciting and interesting
to watch. And his's a bit of a prick, so
that made it easy. So I talked a bit of ship,
as I do, and it was stewed from the whole
UK versus US a thing and seventeen seventy six. And
he was the good old fashioned, hardworking, quiet American boy
(17:47):
that's going to come and fuck me up. That's exactly
what I was. That's what he did. My god, it was.
It was the biggest show the USC had ever done,
and I got knocked out in the most spectacular and
then it flies through the airs. I'm already unconscious and
gives me another one. But good times, good times. You know,
(18:08):
you learn lessons. It is what it is.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
What was it like winning the belt? The adrenaline when
you were finally like.
Speaker 4 (18:15):
Yeah, I mean, obviously an incredible experience when I won
the belt. After I knock him out, I jump on
top of the cage and I turn around and a
point I said fuck you. But that wasn't really at
Louke Rockhold. That was everyone that wrote me off, everyone
that talk shit, everyone that wrote articles in the media,
(18:36):
everyone online that said he could never do it. He's
a good fire, but he's not a great fighter. He's
not championship material. And they always said that all along,
and every time I got a win, they always said
it was a fluke or whatever. You know, they didn't
know how hard.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
I was working.
Speaker 4 (18:49):
So that's that was that pure emotion coming out there,
And it wasn't directed at Luke, poor guy. It was
directed at all the naysayers, of which there was many.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
Right, it makes a competitor, is all those little chirps
trying to prove some moment, everything personal one way or another. Yeah, yeah,
like oh they said this, and me think it's the
worst thing ever.
Speaker 4 (19:09):
Very emotionally immature.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
You're finally like getting out of the fighting ring and
going into the media, Like, was there ever a process
for you where you've been a fighter your whole life,
whether it's been professionally or non professionally, and now you're
going into something completely different, Like was there a piece
of your identity that you're like, Ah, I feel like
I'm losing something of myself.
Speaker 4 (19:28):
No, not really, because honestly, I feel like that fights
a version of myself. I guess if I you know,
he's still in there somewhere, but I'm a different guy
these days completely, you know. I mean I was, you know,
it was definitely a personality flow. When I was younger,
I was always getting into fights, and that kind of
became my identity, my badge of honor. That's who I was.
(19:48):
And when I was younger, that's kind of like how
I ended up getting friends and being popular and hanging
out with the cool guys and stuff, so only further
reinforced it being this bad boy image, if you will.
And then when I got to the UFC, you know,
I guess again it's it's making me money, it's making
me famous or whatever. But now, I'm ma sure, I've
grown up and I'm certainly not fighting anymore, and that
(20:10):
kind of version of me is it doesn't really exist anymore.
And I don't find myself being combative at all. You know,
I still work, I'll still train every day. Like for example,
there's been two occasions recently where I have been assaulted
in the streets and done nothing about it, full on
punched in the face. And I could I could have
(20:31):
made minskya these two hour souls. Just I was in
New Orleans. I was in New Orleans. I was in
New Orleans and I'm walking down Bourbon Street. I've never
been there before. I don't want to go back. Burbon
Street is a shithole. No offense I associated. I got assaulted,
you know what I mean. And then with my wife
and there's a bunch of young guys like playing on
(20:52):
the upside down buckets and playing drums and stuff. So
I'm doing a little touristy thing. I'm filming a little
Instagram story. This guy gets in my face is that
you can't film. I'm like, yeah, I can. It's a
it's a public place, and I carry on film. He says,
your anger, I tell you again, you can't film. I'm like, yes,
I fucking can, and I carry on film and he
gets right in my face. I said, sog, my fucking dick,
(21:15):
and he just goes fair play to him, fair play,
fair play, shuk my fucking dick, and he just went
boom and punched me. I was there with my wife
and my youngest son, who was he like ten at
the time or something. But the punch was so pathetic.
It literally my reaction. I laughed my head off. This
(21:39):
is not me trying to sound tough. It literally was
like ding and I just I said, what was that?
I said, did you just punch me in the face?
I said, is that? I said? You come up and
you talk all that ship and you punch me in
the face, and that is what you have to offer.
I said, come on, Adam, I was laughing my head off.
So we just walked away. What did you do? Because
he had a swing and kind of get ready. So
(22:00):
I have a YouTube channel and my most watched video
is because because I do a podcast as well, and
this guy put a video out because he found out
who I was afterwards, So I took his footage and
used it, integrated it onto my video. It's my most
watched video. But his version of events is exactly the
same as mine. It's exactly the same. He didn't lie,
(22:22):
do you know what I mean? I told him to
start filming and he wouldn't film, so he told me
to suck his dick. So I punched him in the face.
I'm like, say, I told you. And then recently I've
never spoken about this before I was. I was. I
was back home in Clever, Or where I'm from, and
I was at dinner with my mom, who's almost eighty
years old. She can't walk, she's on crutches, and with
(22:43):
my sister, she's got a newborn baby. So beautiful summers. Now,
it's about twelve of us, a very nice family atmosphere.
It's a five thirty PM and I'm sitting there and
these guys walking, I said, guys sixty years old, old,
drunk bombs walking, Hammad drum and one of he just
walks over to me.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
He says, you don't remember me, do you?
Speaker 4 (23:05):
And like, whenever I go back, there's always old faces
that I can't remember the names. Well, hello, good to
see yeah, I said, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, good
to see you said you don't remember, do you. I said, oh, well,
I don't remember your name, but yeah, your face is familiar.
He says, no, let me give you a reminder. And
I've got a scar between my eyes where I've got
a big metal stool smashed in my head when I
(23:27):
was about seventeen, and then twenty guys jumps on my head.
He says, look at that you're scar between your eyes.
I did that, I said, right, I said, I think
you need to walk away. So he goes away, and
they sit down the other side of the restaurant and
it comes to the end of the night. I'm paying
the bill and I'm standing by the front door, and
then they walked past again and they start talking more shit.
(23:47):
I said, what are you doing? I said, here, I
don't know who you were. Donor remember it. This was
nineteen ninety seven, by the way, do you know what
I mean? We've all moved on with our line. I say,
he'd at least know like what you became. Well he did,
that's what he doing it. So anyway, as I'm talking
to one guy, do the guy sucker punches me and
he has a ring gun explose my nose. Do you
know what I mean, and then as he hates me,
(24:08):
he falls on the floor right and they just hammered drunk,
and I'm standing there and I'm just like, God, I
could suck him up so easily right now, but I
just didn't do anything, didn't do anything right because I'm
not doing that. I'm not lowering myself to that. I'm
not coming back to my hometown where he used to
always be getting in fights. And they say he's, oh,
Michael Bisbee's back. He's only been back two minutes. He's
(24:30):
already getting into fights. Do you know what I mean?
I'm not perpetuating now. I know who this guy is
because I was not just that. I'm not that guy anymore.
That was the whole point of this. I'm not that
guy anymore.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
You know whin in your mind did it shifted. I'm
not going to be that guy anymore.
Speaker 4 (24:43):
I'm not there when I was in prison, but still
when I was fighting.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
I was younger, yeah.
Speaker 4 (24:48):
But when I retired, because I see myself back on
old like old promos and stuff, and I'm like, oh God,
he's that guy. He's that guy, you know what I mean.
I'm like Jesus Christ, So how did your mom react
to that. Well, they could have believed I walked it on.
My nose was all bloody, and they were like, what
(25:09):
just happened? You're only paying the bill. Drama follows you everywhere. Yeah, yeah, no,
my mom's she's seen it before. Yeah, she's seen it.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
When you when you're retired, was there thought of you?
There was there a part of you. It's like I
want to retire, but I want to go out with
the wind. I want to go out on top, not
on top, but I want to go out with the wind.
Speaker 4 (25:30):
Absolutely of course. Yeah. Because I was going to fight
again as well against Wishard Evans. We were going to
have a rematch, but for one reason or another, it
never happened. And then an old friend of mine said
to me as well. He said, he said, Michael, what
are you doing? And I said well, and then my
manager already as well. There was a few people. I said, well,
I want to go back to London. I want to
(25:50):
fight the old two Arena one last time, and I
want to thank the audience and I want to have
that moment where you take your gloves off and you
put it down and you thank them the crowd, and
thank you for all the support over the years and
all the rest of it, and it was already Actually,
my manager, he's like your romance in that in your head,
you know.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
He said, you've got one eye. You want to go blind.
Speaker 4 (26:11):
You want to risk going blind because the fight before that,
when I fought Gelvin Gasolm because every time, because I
used to cheat the tests. Okay, they're not that hard
to cheat if if you're a little scallywag like eye
was growing up, they're not that hard to cheat, right,
But the doctors used to always say, you know, you've
been very you know, risky still fighting because if anything
(26:34):
happens to you a good eye, you know, you could
go blind. I was like, yeah, it's fine. And I
was like, well, line is not going to strike twice.
That was my logic, right, It's already happened in one eye.
The odds of that happening on the second eye is minimal.
It's not going to happen. But when I got knocked
out in China, afterwards, we went to a nightclub and
we're sitting in there and my eyes just kept going flashing.
(26:56):
Every time I look left, it would give a flash,
and I thought, oh my god, I remember the symptoms
when I had the detached rettin of the first time.
So that was why, you know, I kind of wasn't
going to fight again. But then I wanted that that
send off, you know what I mean, he reminded me.
Speaker 2 (27:13):
I said, what are you doing? You want to go blind?
Speaker 4 (27:15):
He said, for what? Some some idea, some theory that
you've got in your mind. This this whole big romantic
send off. He said, you're being stupid. I thought, you
know what, You're absolutely right.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
Do you have any more? Yeah? I do.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
I mean it's kind of a cheeky question, kind of
you just go on clip or whatever. But I've seen
how the UFC is today. If you were picking out fighters,
if you were in your prime again, who were the
guys that you would love to crack at fighters right
now today?
Speaker 4 (27:39):
Yeah? Well, I used to train with him a lot.
Sean Strickland would be easy, works a lot of sogna.
I'm joking, by the way, Sean Strickland's a lot of
son your Driggs DUPLESSI. Who else is in the top five?
Give me all of those? You know, I wouldn't want
to go up. Tom asked me, no, fog, that was
that the size of him. I know you're a big boy.
(28:02):
I'm telling you, whoever wins that fight between Jones and Steepey,
they should retire because they're gonna get their asswarped, simple
as that. And I love Jones and I love Steepey,
and I've got so much respect. Look at what he
did to Pavlovitch. And I was saying this coming into
this fire, and DC was like, what are you doing?
What are you talking about? You know, He's like, you're
(28:24):
kissing this guy's ass. I'm like, no, I'm basing this
off what I see. And he went out and he
did it again, and I don't see anybody stopping him.
Speaker 3 (28:33):
With all these uh, with all these fight leagues coming about,
do you think any other league has a shot to
compete with the UFC at any point?
Speaker 4 (28:42):
Probably?
Speaker 3 (28:42):
Not.
Speaker 4 (28:43):
You know, there's always new iterations. There's always people want
to come up and do things differently and change the
rules and tweet this and that. You know, I don't
think so. I mean, it's it's the household name.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
You know.
Speaker 4 (28:55):
It's like, I don't know much about football. You got
the NFL, what the XFL?
Speaker 2 (28:59):
I ever going to accomplish? Really competing like, what is it
called the PFL.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
You get the PFL, Let me have a CFL pfil
knocks about the UFLF for the fighters profile everything.
Speaker 4 (29:11):
Or the FC of the oops. You know, no, no not.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
Because based on like the fighter pay and the the well,
it's always.
Speaker 4 (29:20):
What happens from my knowledge is that they try and
poach away other UFC fights by paying them exorbitant amounts
of money that they're not necessarily worth. Sometimes, but in
the UFC, there's no better place. If you can become
champion and you get pay per view points, that's what
you're going to make the most money, you know. And
I always get accused of being a company man. Well
I am a company man and I'm proud to be
(29:41):
so it changed my life, you know, I changed my
life one hundred percent. And you'll notice that the people
making good money, the creme de la creme, the people
are that they're not bitching, they're not complaining because the
money is there, you know. I mean, look at Connor
McGregor for crying out loud and granted he's like, you know,
he's kind of like a unicorn, if you will, But
there's any of other people that are making very very.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
Good livings or do you like Chandler McGregor.
Speaker 4 (30:05):
Probably Chandler. Let's be honest. You know, McGregor's has been out,
it'll be almost four years by then. He's made so
much money, and the motivation probably isn't there, you know.
And he likes to party. Yeah, and why not after
God bless him? Hey, you enjoy yourself. He's done it.
He come in, he changed the game, won the belts,
made the money. We're boys and Michaels gonna be good
(30:28):
to hear that. Yeah, no, no, of course you are. Yeah, no,
I love Chandler as well. Listen, what else has McGregor
got to prove? The only the only reason he still
wants to fight is because you can have all the
money in the world, but you can't buy a championship
in the UFC. And and as all fighters, we operate
on ego and we want to say we're the best,
(30:50):
we're the toy. And he goes back to as I
was saying before, but me always getting in fights. I
wanted to be the baddest motherfucker around. I wanted to
be the toughest guy. And it's the same ship, it's
the same yard stuff that we're all fucking doing. But
we're professional fighters. They want to be the toughest and
the hardest and the baddest guy. And McGregor wants that,
and he's trying to prove that he still is. You know,
(31:10):
that's why you're coming back. And he's respect from the
fight community and the only way you get that is
by fighting. You can't buy that. So fair play to
him for still trying, you know what I mean. But
he doesn't need to.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
Yeah, Michael Man, thank you for coming on. This is
all the time in here.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
Energy was high his careers after it was the reason
why you're successful. And media, I'm quite tired as far
as YouTube show everything. Where can we find yourself?
Speaker 4 (31:34):
I don't really like to do that because you just cringe.
I've cut myself out of the but you know, just
check it out, Google it. I'm not doing it, guys.
You can find me on the you know, nah, I'm
not doing it.
Speaker 3 (31:46):
Fucking google it, you know, you know, you know he's
been in front of the camera bike Michael's Bisbee Show. Subscribe,
make sure you subscribe.
Speaker 4 (31:55):
Believe you med podcast and just just just google it. Yeah, yeah,
thanks are coming to appreciate your brother guys. Thank you
very much.
Speaker 2 (32:04):
Man that was lost
Speaker 4 (32:14):
Hmm.
So you know what I mean, well spoken individual, are
so well spoken.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
You have a good show on you too.
Speaker 3 (00:07):
I keep myself busy. Yeah, you've done a great job
transitioning fight. Thank you very much.
Speaker 4 (00:14):
Yeah, I mean as as a former fighter or like
all athletes. I mean, you guys did very well. But
fighters in particularly, it's a hard road, you know what
I mean. And then not a lot of fighters make money,
you know, there's only the tip of the iceberg. And
I'm not talking about in the UFC. I mean to
get to the UFC. I mean that in itself is
very hard, you know, but to really be able to
(00:35):
retire comfortably, you know, only the only a select few
get to do that, you know, in in any professional sports.
I mean, if you look at soccer, right, how many
people play soccer, you know, and how many people get
to actually really make a living. So yeah, retiring as
a fighter still being involved with the sport, commentating in
the UFC, it couldn't have worked out any better.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
And I'm a very happy man. Do you feel like
you retired comfortably?
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (00:59):
Yeah, no, for sure.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
At the time.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
Yeah, yeah, no, I had a great career, you know,
I mean I was able to win the belt, defend
it out some championship fights. You know, I was repping
the UK for a long time as well. So I
had a great career. I had a long run. Yeah. Yeah,
very comfortably. I mean, you can always be more comfortable. Question. Yeah,
you know what I'm saying and over again. Yeah, Dana
(01:21):
always looked after me and I always did very well.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Did Were you doing any of the media stuff while
you were fighting or was that a transition you made
right when you got done.
Speaker 4 (01:30):
No, so I was doing it whilst I was fighting
as well. Is this sound okay for you guys? Close enough? Yeah?
So so you probably know maybe you don't so I
don't see my right eye the yeah, yeah story. So,
so when I started having the I issues, because obviously
you want to be a champion and all the rest
of it, When I started having the I issues and
I was told I was never going to be able
(01:50):
to fight again, and I did carry on fighting, and
I was lying and cheating on tests and all the
rest of it, doing whatever I could, right, But I
was like, this isn't going to last forever. I've got
to figure out I can. I know my door is closing,
the options are going to go away soon. So I
started doing as much of that stuff as I could,
working on Fox Sports at the time, and then started
a podcast and then just whatever else I could do
(02:12):
whilst I still had a platform and whilst people still
gave it that. You know what I'm saying, because when
you desire your old.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
News it was if it wasn't for the eye, do
you think you would have had the idea to kind of, Okay,
I need to find out some different avenues because as
as athletes, like for me, there was never a play
b you kind of just think I'm gonna play football
and then I'll die on the field your greatest order
to go out that way, not for sure, and that's
always the goal, that's what you want to do.
Speaker 4 (02:35):
You got to be single minded to be successful and
to be great at anything, You've got to be lied that.
But of course you'd be a fool not to realize
that there's a life after fighting, you know. I mean,
I think it was two thousand and nine I started
doing a little bit of acting and stuff like that.
I never thought I'd end up doing that, but I
just got offered an acting roll out of the blue,
so I was like, yeah, fucking why not, let's give
it a shot. The next thing, I'm in Austin, Texas,
(02:57):
spent my per day and for the Inside issue. On
the first night with my buddy, we had a great
night out turned the post. I hung over to the mics,
thinking what am I doing here, but then ended up
loving the entire process and done that stuff ever since
as well. So yeah, I mean I always kind of
had part in the pun, one eye on doing other stuff.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Nice. Now that's about the legacy.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
We were a little birdie totalist that you had a
DJ career DJ mikey Be.
Speaker 4 (03:25):
It's nothing to write home about. So yeah, I mean, listen,
I was obsessed with martial arts as a kid, and
then one day I was walking home from work when
I was sixteen, and my buddy had a set of decks.
I went into his house and you know, they were
smoking weed and stuff. I was never a weed smoker,
but I saw the decks and the turntables and I
just thought that was the coolest thing ever at sixteen,
(03:45):
So I stopped doing martial arts and became DJ mikey Bee.
I put all my effort into that, and I had
a little bit of a you know, following or whatever.
I did okay for a while, but but you know, nothing,
nothing to write home about.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
You know what.
Speaker 4 (03:59):
I still spin the turntables a bit for fun when
I'm bored. I might do the occasional set here and there,
but I've hung up the records a long time ago.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
You stopped MMA so that you were doing the DJ stuff,
and then I was like, okay, let me get back
into the fighting.
Speaker 4 (04:12):
Yeah. Yeah, well I wasn't doing mm A. I was
doing martial arts. You know, a lot of martial arts
tournaments and stuff. But so yeah, I put all my
efforts into being a DJ. And then I met my
girlfriend who's now my wife, and we had two children,
and then I was like, yeah, I don't think this
is happening, you know what I mean. There were some
pretty rundown venues in the northwest of England, you know
(04:34):
what I mean. We're not exactly talking excess at the wind.
This is not what we're talking about, guys, Vegas. I
don't even know about that. Get to it, Betha, you
know Bezas Yeah, yeah, yeah no. And then when the
kids came along, I was like, what am I doing
with myself? And I was always getting into scraps, you know,
(04:56):
on fights. When I was a kid, I was that
was that kind of guy. And then I actually I
went to prison. I got sent down for twenty eight days.
And it was when I was sitting in the holding
cell waiting to be assigned by cell. I was sitting there,
I was thinking, what is going on? What is how
I ended up here? And I'm sitting in this holding
cell and there's old drug addicts and dead beats around me,
(05:16):
and they're like, look coming up, Dren, went you in
for me?
Speaker 3 (05:19):
You know?
Speaker 4 (05:19):
And I'm like, don't talk to me, stay away from
I'm not one of you. And I thought to myself,
I've got to make a change. And right then and there,
that's when I kind of got my act together. And
I'm actually grateful for that judge for doing that, because
I was just reckless and didn't really give a damn.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
How do we get in there?
Speaker 4 (05:37):
Just I was fighting?
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Yeah, how old are you?
Speaker 4 (05:40):
What was I twenty two, twenty three? Something like that.
I was always getting fights. I'm from a small town.
Everyone knows everyone's business. Ever since I was a kid,
I always you know, I was just that kind of kid.
I was always down for a fight, and I was
young and I was reckless, and I thought it was
all fun and games, you know what I mean. You know,
(06:01):
I was very immature, let's.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Be honest, you know.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
So it really was a wig up calling. It is
what the prison SYSM was supposed to be. It's like, oh,
why need to snap out of it? And it worked
on me one hundred percent, yeah, one hundred percent.
Speaker 4 (06:10):
Yeah. So I came out of there and never threw
another punch on the street, just decided to start doing
it professionally. But I didn't find my way to mixed
martial arts then because MMA wasn't really a thing. The
UFC existed, but I wasn't a fan. But then my
old to use an old term sense told me all
about the explosion of something called mixed martial arts and
(06:34):
the UFC and in Japan they had Pride and I
didn't even know what it was. I said, can you
make money? And he said, listen to the champions are
making great money, the celebrities in America that they got
getting into acting and all this kind of stuff. So
we said this whole He painted this whole picture, and
I thought, that's what I want. So I signed up
for my first fight three months later, didn't even know
what the sport was, got the knockout. Two years later,
(06:56):
I was on the Ultimate Fire. Won that next minute.
Here we are talking busting in with bussing with the boy, right?
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Was that the big break was getting on the Ultimate Fighter?
Speaker 4 (07:08):
Oh? For sure, of course, you know, firing on the
regional scene if you will, that's what they call it
in the UK. I mean, I was the Cage Warriors Champion.
I was a cage Race champion. I was the what
was it any promotion that was in the UK. I
was the champion of as well as the super heavyweight
kickboxing champion. I used to be a bit of a
fat bastard, so yeah, I mean, so then they came
(07:30):
to the UK looking for two guys to be on
The Ultimate Fight to season three, and then we had
these open auditions and had the auditions all the other
people in my weight class. I knocked them all out,
you know what I mean. So I was kind of
confident that I was going to get it. And then
of course I'm allowed my mouth piece of shit as well,
So you want to better drama? So yeah, yeah, there
you go. How was The Ultimate Fighter structured?
Speaker 1 (07:52):
Then? Was everybody in the same house. Still, was it
kind of a reality TV show to go with it
as well?
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (07:55):
Yeah, for sure, Yeah, absolutely, And I loved it. I mean,
come on, listen, never been to America. They're going to
fly me to America. I'm sitting in a big, beautiful
mansion with a bunch of guys. We're getting paid to
train and work out. And you walk in and being
coached by Ts and Ken Shamrock and day in a
whites there. I'm like, shit, this is it. This is
really happening. And a lot of people on the show
(08:16):
they were there for the fifteen minutes of fame, you know,
But I was. I was there to kick some ass
and win, you know, and fortune early with a bit
of luck, that's what I was able to do.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
So when you go to when you go through the
Ultimate Fighter and you get that bid to go in
the UFC, you said earlier you were really a fan
of UFC.
Speaker 4 (08:31):
When did you become like this is this organization? Really?
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Wasn't that money in his pocket? This is not?
Speaker 4 (08:39):
Actually yeah, it was a fast I just didn't even
really know it existed. I remember I was a World
Championships in nineteen ninety five when I was sixteen and
we were staying in a youth hostel in Auckland, and
I remember in the kitchen in the youth hostel, they
were all watching I think it was like UFC two
or three or something. And I wasn't really interested, not
because I wasn't a fan. I was just, you know,
(09:00):
I was a kid and whatever, and I was too
busy going out with my friends and partying and stuff.
But as soon as I knew there was a viable
career option, and I knew I was getting older and
I'd been in trouble with the law and I left
school at sixteen, I was like, this is probably the
only way I'm going to make something out of my life,
you know, because I always said, like, you know, getting
(09:21):
on your lecturer's high horse. But everyone's good at something,
everyone's got a skill. And I remember I remember my
supervisor at the time at work. I was working at
this sofa factory, just like making couches and stuff, and
he said, what are you going to do for the
rest of your life? Michael? He said, you want to
do this? I said, no way, And he said, well,
you know, you think about it. Because I walked into
(09:42):
this factory thirty years ago, and it flown by light
that I said, you're still a young man. So I
started thinking. I said, what am I good at? What
am I good at? And I've always been good at fighting.
I was always good at martial arts. I was always
in street fights. I'm ashamed to say now, but I was.
You know, I was very it's successful. Let's just put
it like that without sounding like a quick So I
(10:05):
said to him, I'll never forget. I walked up to
him and I said, Mick, Mick, I said, I figured
out what I'm going to do. And he takes his
he's got his two belts on. He takes his two
belts off, and he walks off, rubbin his hanse come
on because he was kind of like a mentor, and
he's like, okay, what's the plan. I said, I'm going
to be a professional fighter. And he was like, oh
my god, I thought you were a smart kid. I'm like,
(10:27):
just me, I know what I'm doing.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
So anyway to make the call back to him, like hey.
Speaker 4 (10:33):
Clean enough. I was googling him last week because I
was talking about this to my wife, about Mick Killeen.
But no, no, I don't. I don't know what happened
to him. Well, you know, I don't think I had
as much of an impact on him as he had
on me. Yeah, it's funny, isn't it. You know that
these people come into your lives that can make a
big impression and they might not realize it, you know,
(10:55):
like a teacher to a troubled high school kid or whatever.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
You know.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
Yeah, there you go.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
You've had a lot of incredible fights, like what lost
pisses you off the most?
Speaker 4 (11:05):
Or what lost? None of them? To be honest, none
of them pissed me off. I mean I'm forty four
now so and I've been midsized twenty eighteen, so you know,
I don't spend I don't keep myself up at night
stewing over them. But what passed me off?
Speaker 2 (11:19):
Which one had the most residual effects?
Speaker 4 (11:21):
Been times past? Yeah, yeah, I don't again, good question.
I mean the Vanderalaier silver Fire was bullshit. I won
that fire, I was robbed, and yeah, I love that.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
Nothing really makes me mad, But you're digging deep into
the you know, fuck Vandalai.
Speaker 4 (11:44):
No, No, yes, that one, I guess because Vandalai is
a legend of the sport, and he was actually one
of the guys that when I started discovering what MMA was,
I saw vanderlay files. Oh my gosh, this guy's amazing.
Look at this guy, and I wanted to be like him.
And then so to fire him was a big deal,
you know. And I thought I won the fight, but whatever,
(12:05):
it didn't go my way.
Speaker 3 (12:06):
Yeah, he had all the training videos where he's like
training with the snorkel and ship right.
Speaker 4 (12:09):
Like, yeah, he did a lot of he did a
lot of steroids as well. You know, they're the ones,
you know what I mean, the Vito belfour one. Obviously
I lost an eyeball through that because he's a cheating
piece of ship, you know, so I guess there's a
few can go fuck himself. He was like every performance
(12:31):
enhancing drug under the sun. I love Jail. He's cool.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
Because he's malthy too, Like.
Speaker 4 (12:39):
I wish I could have he never did because we
were both fighting on the same card, but we had
different opponents. And then for whatever reason it's a long story,
somebody drops out, so they rejiggled the card and I
was fighting Jail and this was like ten days before
the fight, so we didn't really have time to turning
him to manifest or to brew. You know, there was
(12:59):
no bad feelings, couldn't you know arise? It was like
before we knew it. We were in Chicago, were stepping
on the scale, remember our square up to jail on
the ways, and you know you're trying and do your bit,
like you get in his face and yeah, fucking dead
that type of stuff. I'm in there because I always
(13:24):
used to give not give him a head, bob, but
just like a little just a little touch, you know,
because you're trying to insert your last minute dominance, you know.
And ChIL just said, what colonna are you wearing? You
smelled delightful? Son of a bitch? You talk about these
dudes taking PD steroid stuff like that?
Speaker 1 (13:44):
Was it easy when you got your hands on guys
to feel like, Okay, you got something going on?
Speaker 4 (13:48):
Extra do you don't what? To be honest, there's only
one fire that I ever felt overpowered in, even though
I know for a fact I fought a lot of
guys that were using because for a while there was
to sell strong replacement therapy, which was legal. They were
allowed to do that if you went to a doctor
and the doctor signed off on it. There you got
boom you were in and I've never taken anything in
(14:08):
my life, but even still there was I guess Vito
was like ridiculously powerful and explosive with his striking. But
when we clanched up or anything. There's only one guy
that I thought, who's called Matt Hammill. That was a
death fighter that warped my ass in round one. And
I was like a little school boy with him. But
he was on steroids or anything like that. He was
just a good old forem boy.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 4 (14:31):
That give me a good old ass kickid God bless him.
Speaker 3 (14:34):
Wasn't just the testa like the TRT that was like
the issue, like what what?
Speaker 2 (14:38):
How was everybody? How people able access as so much?
Speaker 4 (14:41):
I have no idea, I have not I'm not an
expert on that stuff, but it was rife. I know
it was everyone. You know, everyone's aware with that because
the drug testing back then was kind of like an
IQ test. You know, now we have what we had,
you Sawa, we have another program now where the show
randomly the tests you and you know he's very in
depth and very safe. Back then, it was not all fights.
(15:03):
The main event. Maybe the Colemane. You had to take
a piss test after the fight.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
You know.
Speaker 4 (15:08):
So if you're smart enough, you know how to cycle
it and get it out of your system. But I
was always so young and confident. I was like, I
don't give a shit, I don't care whatever.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
I'm going to get him.
Speaker 3 (15:17):
Anyone ever thought about it, well, I'm taking anything right,
like trying to figure out what?
Speaker 4 (15:22):
Never. I remember when I was coming up in the UK,
you know it, The UK scene back then was like
the wild West, trust me, like, you know, anyone involved
in mixed martial arts back then the world gangsters and
drug dealers and thugs and whatnot. You know, it wasn't
the professional scene it is now, let me tell you.
And there was a lot of people all taking steroids
on my team and stuff like that. But in my mind,
(15:43):
I was always like, well, number one, I don't want
to do that. I don't need to do that. But
I'm going to the UFC. I'm not here to be
a tough guy in my hometown. I'm going to the UFC,
and I don't want to test positive and get banned,
you know what I mean. So, and of course, ethically, ethically,
of course you.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
Know with the ethically part, but everybody's doing it. It's
got to be hard like baseball, and how do you
keep it secret to like you know, dudes are taking it.
Speaker 3 (16:09):
And I was like this guy like that lancet arm
showing where you realize like literally every cyclist was on
something Like he was just a guy who was like you.
Speaker 4 (16:17):
Yeah, when you're defeated, and this is the thing that
you'll see like eliasa Porius fighting next week and you
have two nine eight and he is bringing with confidence.
He's talking about knocking Bolkanovsky in one round and how
he's not even going to be a fight, because that's
how you are when you're undefeated. Like I was smoking everybody,
you know, I was knocking everyone out in the first round,
and you know, I didn't really have a fight, And
(16:38):
I was like the fucking you know, because when you're undefeated,
you literally feel like no one on earth can beat you,
and it's just what it does to you. And every
time you compete and you win, that is that that
that mindset is further solidified. So I was like, well,
help me knock yourself out, give me the best shot.
You know, until you start getting knocked out yourself eyes
(16:58):
and dribbling, you know what I mean? Doing this dumbling word.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
Yeah, doesn't change your game, like when you first got out.
Who was the who was the first of the video
was the.
Speaker 4 (17:06):
Show Henderson UFC one. So we coached the Ultimate Fighter
passion Yeah, no, no, listen for a player was on
testasrow replacement therapy. That's noted and in the books it's true.
It's true. No, No, God blessing me got me good
because we coached the Ultimate Fighter. I talked a ton
(17:27):
of shit because Dan Henderson is literally like watching pain dry,
So somebody had to make that show exciting and interesting
to watch. And his's a bit of a prick, so
that made it easy. So I talked a bit of ship,
as I do, and it was stewed from the whole
UK versus US a thing and seventeen seventy six. And
he was the good old fashioned, hardworking, quiet American boy
(17:47):
that's going to come and fuck me up. That's exactly
what I was. That's what he did. My god, it was.
It was the biggest show the USC had ever done,
and I got knocked out in the most spectacular and
then it flies through the airs. I'm already unconscious and
gives me another one. But good times, good times. You know,
(18:08):
you learn lessons. It is what it is.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
What was it like winning the belt? The adrenaline when
you were finally like.
Speaker 4 (18:15):
Yeah, I mean, obviously an incredible experience when I won
the belt. After I knock him out, I jump on
top of the cage and I turn around and a
point I said fuck you. But that wasn't really at
Louke Rockhold. That was everyone that wrote me off, everyone
that talk shit, everyone that wrote articles in the media,
(18:36):
everyone online that said he could never do it. He's
a good fire, but he's not a great fighter. He's
not championship material. And they always said that all along,
and every time I got a win, they always said
it was a fluke or whatever. You know, they didn't
know how hard.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
I was working.
Speaker 4 (18:49):
So that's that was that pure emotion coming out there,
And it wasn't directed at Luke, poor guy. It was
directed at all the naysayers, of which there was many.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
Right, it makes a competitor, is all those little chirps
trying to prove some moment, everything personal one way or another. Yeah, yeah,
like oh they said this, and me think it's the
worst thing ever.
Speaker 4 (19:09):
Very emotionally immature.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
You're finally like getting out of the fighting ring and
going into the media, Like, was there ever a process
for you where you've been a fighter your whole life,
whether it's been professionally or non professionally, and now you're
going into something completely different, Like was there a piece
of your identity that you're like, Ah, I feel like
I'm losing something of myself.
Speaker 4 (19:28):
No, not really, because honestly, I feel like that fights
a version of myself. I guess if I you know,
he's still in there somewhere, but I'm a different guy
these days completely, you know. I mean I was, you know,
it was definitely a personality flow. When I was younger,
I was always getting into fights, and that kind of
became my identity, my badge of honor. That's who I was.
(19:48):
And when I was younger, that's kind of like how
I ended up getting friends and being popular and hanging
out with the cool guys and stuff, so only further
reinforced it being this bad boy image, if you will.
And then when I got to the UFC, you know,
I guess again it's it's making me money, it's making
me famous or whatever. But now, I'm ma sure, I've
grown up and I'm certainly not fighting anymore, and that
(20:10):
kind of version of me is it doesn't really exist anymore.
And I don't find myself being combative at all. You know,
I still work, I'll still train every day. Like for example,
there's been two occasions recently where I have been assaulted
in the streets and done nothing about it, full on
punched in the face. And I could I could have
(20:31):
made minskya these two hour souls. Just I was in
New Orleans. I was in New Orleans. I was in
New Orleans and I'm walking down Bourbon Street. I've never
been there before. I don't want to go back. Burbon
Street is a shithole. No offense I associated. I got assaulted,
you know what I mean. And then with my wife
and there's a bunch of young guys like playing on
(20:52):
the upside down buckets and playing drums and stuff. So
I'm doing a little touristy thing. I'm filming a little
Instagram story. This guy gets in my face is that
you can't film. I'm like, yeah, I can. It's a
it's a public place, and I carry on film. He says,
your anger, I tell you again, you can't film. I'm like, yes,
I fucking can, and I carry on film and he
gets right in my face. I said, sog, my fucking dick,
(21:15):
and he just goes fair play to him, fair play,
fair play, shuk my fucking dick, and he just went
boom and punched me. I was there with my wife
and my youngest son, who was he like ten at
the time or something. But the punch was so pathetic.
It literally my reaction. I laughed my head off. This
(21:39):
is not me trying to sound tough. It literally was
like ding and I just I said, what was that?
I said, did you just punch me in the face?
I said, is that? I said? You come up and
you talk all that ship and you punch me in
the face, and that is what you have to offer.
I said, come on, Adam, I was laughing my head off.
So we just walked away. What did you do? Because
he had a swing and kind of get ready. So
(22:00):
I have a YouTube channel and my most watched video
is because because I do a podcast as well, and
this guy put a video out because he found out
who I was afterwards, So I took his footage and
used it, integrated it onto my video. It's my most
watched video. But his version of events is exactly the
same as mine. It's exactly the same. He didn't lie,
(22:22):
do you know what I mean? I told him to
start filming and he wouldn't film, so he told me
to suck his dick. So I punched him in the face.
I'm like, say, I told you. And then recently I've
never spoken about this before I was. I was. I
was back home in Clever, Or where I'm from, and
I was at dinner with my mom, who's almost eighty
years old. She can't walk, she's on crutches, and with
(22:43):
my sister, she's got a newborn baby. So beautiful summers. Now,
it's about twelve of us, a very nice family atmosphere.
It's a five thirty PM and I'm sitting there and
these guys walking, I said, guys sixty years old, old,
drunk bombs walking, Hammad drum and one of he just
walks over to me.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
He says, you don't remember me, do you?
Speaker 4 (23:05):
And like, whenever I go back, there's always old faces
that I can't remember the names. Well, hello, good to
see yeah, I said, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, good
to see you said you don't remember, do you. I said, oh, well,
I don't remember your name, but yeah, your face is familiar.
He says, no, let me give you a reminder. And
I've got a scar between my eyes where I've got
a big metal stool smashed in my head when I
(23:27):
was about seventeen, and then twenty guys jumps on my head.
He says, look at that you're scar between your eyes.
I did that, I said, right, I said, I think
you need to walk away. So he goes away, and
they sit down the other side of the restaurant and
it comes to the end of the night. I'm paying
the bill and I'm standing by the front door, and
then they walked past again and they start talking more shit.
(23:47):
I said, what are you doing? I said, here, I
don't know who you were. Donor remember it. This was
nineteen ninety seven, by the way, do you know what
I mean? We've all moved on with our line. I say,
he'd at least know like what you became. Well he did,
that's what he doing it. So anyway, as I'm talking
to one guy, do the guy sucker punches me and
he has a ring gun explose my nose. Do you
know what I mean, and then as he hates me,
(24:08):
he falls on the floor right and they just hammered drunk,
and I'm standing there and I'm just like, God, I
could suck him up so easily right now, but I
just didn't do anything, didn't do anything right because I'm
not doing that. I'm not lowering myself to that. I'm
not coming back to my hometown where he used to
always be getting in fights. And they say he's, oh,
Michael Bisbee's back. He's only been back two minutes. He's
(24:30):
already getting into fights. Do you know what I mean?
I'm not perpetuating now. I know who this guy is
because I was not just that. I'm not that guy anymore.
That was the whole point of this. I'm not that
guy anymore.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
You know whin in your mind did it shifted. I'm
not going to be that guy anymore.
Speaker 4 (24:43):
I'm not there when I was in prison, but still
when I was fighting.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
I was younger, yeah.
Speaker 4 (24:48):
But when I retired, because I see myself back on
old like old promos and stuff, and I'm like, oh God,
he's that guy. He's that guy, you know what I mean.
I'm like Jesus Christ, So how did your mom react
to that. Well, they could have believed I walked it on.
My nose was all bloody, and they were like, what
(25:09):
just happened? You're only paying the bill. Drama follows you everywhere. Yeah, yeah, no,
my mom's she's seen it before. Yeah, she's seen it.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
When you when you're retired, was there thought of you?
There was there a part of you. It's like I
want to retire, but I want to go out with
the wind. I want to go out on top, not
on top, but I want to go out with the wind.
Speaker 4 (25:30):
Absolutely of course. Yeah. Because I was going to fight
again as well against Wishard Evans. We were going to
have a rematch, but for one reason or another, it
never happened. And then an old friend of mine said
to me as well. He said, he said, Michael, what
are you doing? And I said well, and then my
manager already as well. There was a few people. I said, well,
I want to go back to London. I want to
(25:50):
fight the old two Arena one last time, and I
want to thank the audience and I want to have
that moment where you take your gloves off and you
put it down and you thank them the crowd, and
thank you for all the support over the years and
all the rest of it, and it was already Actually,
my manager, he's like your romance in that in your head,
you know.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
He said, you've got one eye. You want to go blind.
Speaker 4 (26:11):
You want to risk going blind because the fight before that,
when I fought Gelvin Gasolm because every time, because I
used to cheat the tests. Okay, they're not that hard
to cheat if if you're a little scallywag like eye
was growing up, they're not that hard to cheat, right,
But the doctors used to always say, you know, you've
been very you know, risky still fighting because if anything
(26:34):
happens to you a good eye, you know, you could
go blind. I was like, yeah, it's fine. And I
was like, well, line is not going to strike twice.
That was my logic, right, It's already happened in one eye.
The odds of that happening on the second eye is minimal.
It's not going to happen. But when I got knocked
out in China, afterwards, we went to a nightclub and
we're sitting in there and my eyes just kept going flashing.
(26:56):
Every time I look left, it would give a flash,
and I thought, oh my god, I remember the symptoms
when I had the detached rettin of the first time.
So that was why, you know, I kind of wasn't
going to fight again. But then I wanted that that
send off, you know what I mean, he reminded me.
Speaker 2 (27:13):
I said, what are you doing? You want to go blind?
Speaker 4 (27:15):
He said, for what? Some some idea, some theory that
you've got in your mind. This this whole big romantic
send off. He said, you're being stupid. I thought, you
know what, You're absolutely right.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
Do you have any more? Yeah? I do.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
I mean it's kind of a cheeky question, kind of
you just go on clip or whatever. But I've seen
how the UFC is today. If you were picking out fighters,
if you were in your prime again, who were the
guys that you would love to crack at fighters right
now today?
Speaker 4 (27:39):
Yeah? Well, I used to train with him a lot.
Sean Strickland would be easy, works a lot of sogna.
I'm joking, by the way, Sean Strickland's a lot of
son your Driggs DUPLESSI. Who else is in the top five?
Give me all of those? You know, I wouldn't want
to go up. Tom asked me, no, fog, that was
that the size of him. I know you're a big boy.
(28:02):
I'm telling you, whoever wins that fight between Jones and Steepey,
they should retire because they're gonna get their asswarped, simple
as that. And I love Jones and I love Steepey,
and I've got so much respect. Look at what he
did to Pavlovitch. And I was saying this coming into
this fire, and DC was like, what are you doing?
What are you talking about? You know, He's like, you're
(28:24):
kissing this guy's ass. I'm like, no, I'm basing this
off what I see. And he went out and he
did it again, and I don't see anybody stopping him.
Speaker 3 (28:33):
With all these uh, with all these fight leagues coming about,
do you think any other league has a shot to
compete with the UFC at any point?
Speaker 4 (28:42):
Probably?
Speaker 3 (28:42):
Not.
Speaker 4 (28:43):
You know, there's always new iterations. There's always people want
to come up and do things differently and change the
rules and tweet this and that. You know, I don't
think so. I mean, it's it's the household name.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
You know.
Speaker 4 (28:55):
It's like, I don't know much about football. You got
the NFL, what the XFL?
Speaker 2 (28:59):
I ever going to accomplish? Really competing like, what is it
called the PFL.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
You get the PFL, Let me have a CFL pfil
knocks about the UFLF for the fighters profile everything.
Speaker 4 (29:11):
Or the FC of the oops. You know, no, no not.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
Because based on like the fighter pay and the the well,
it's always.
Speaker 4 (29:20):
What happens from my knowledge is that they try and
poach away other UFC fights by paying them exorbitant amounts
of money that they're not necessarily worth. Sometimes, but in
the UFC, there's no better place. If you can become
champion and you get pay per view points, that's what
you're going to make the most money, you know. And
I always get accused of being a company man. Well
I am a company man and I'm proud to be
(29:41):
so it changed my life, you know, I changed my
life one hundred percent. And you'll notice that the people
making good money, the creme de la creme, the people
are that they're not bitching, they're not complaining because the
money is there, you know. I mean, look at Connor
McGregor for crying out loud and granted he's like, you know,
he's kind of like a unicorn, if you will, But
there's any of other people that are making very very.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
Good livings or do you like Chandler McGregor.
Speaker 4 (30:05):
Probably Chandler. Let's be honest. You know, McGregor's has been out,
it'll be almost four years by then. He's made so
much money, and the motivation probably isn't there, you know.
And he likes to party. Yeah, and why not after
God bless him? Hey, you enjoy yourself. He's done it.
He come in, he changed the game, won the belts,
made the money. We're boys and Michaels gonna be good
(30:28):
to hear that. Yeah, no, no, of course you are. Yeah, no,
I love Chandler as well. Listen, what else has McGregor
got to prove? The only the only reason he still
wants to fight is because you can have all the
money in the world, but you can't buy a championship
in the UFC. And and as all fighters, we operate
on ego and we want to say we're the best,
(30:50):
we're the toy. And he goes back to as I
was saying before, but me always getting in fights. I
wanted to be the baddest motherfucker around. I wanted to
be the toughest guy. And it's the same ship, it's
the same yard stuff that we're all fucking doing. But
we're professional fighters. They want to be the toughest and
the hardest and the baddest guy. And McGregor wants that,
and he's trying to prove that he still is. You know,
(31:10):
that's why you're coming back. And he's respect from the
fight community and the only way you get that is
by fighting. You can't buy that. So fair play to
him for still trying, you know what I mean. But
he doesn't need to.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
Yeah, Michael Man, thank you for coming on. This is
all the time in here.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
Energy was high his careers after it was the reason
why you're successful. And media, I'm quite tired as far
as YouTube show everything. Where can we find yourself?
Speaker 4 (31:34):
I don't really like to do that because you just cringe.
I've cut myself out of the but you know, just
check it out, Google it. I'm not doing it, guys.
You can find me on the you know, nah, I'm
not doing it.
Speaker 3 (31:46):
Fucking google it, you know, you know, you know he's
been in front of the camera bike Michael's Bisbee Show. Subscribe,
make sure you subscribe.
Speaker 4 (31:55):
Believe you med podcast and just just just google it. Yeah, yeah,
thanks are coming to appreciate your brother guys. Thank you
very much.
Speaker 2 (32:04):
Man that was lost
Speaker 4 (32:14):
Hmm.
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Will Compton
Taylor Lewan
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