Former middleweight champion Michael Bisping has made a staggering admission regarding the damage he received during his storied UFC run — which has now hampered his fleeting acting career.
Bisping, a former titleholder at 185 lbs in the promotion, called time officially in his career following a damaging knockout loss to Kelvin Gastelum back in 2017. The British veteran has been through the ringer in his fighting career.
Suffering two of the most infamous and hellacious knockout losses in the history of the Octagon during his stint, Bisping came unstuck opposite two of his fiercest rivals.
Most notably, Bisping would see his retina detached via a high kick by Vitor Belfort in 2013 in a hostile trip to Brazil. However, the damage is not limited to his eye, it would appear.
During a video with Mike Bohn, the veteran claimed damage suffered in the Octagon has led to him suffering from memory loss when it comes to retaining information about acting — forcing him to turn down sizeable roles.
“Just out of the blue, two lead role [offers] came in,” Bisping said.
“I’ve got two movies that I’m doing — I leave for Calgary on Monday, or Tuesday. …As I said, they’re lead roles. And they’re really, really fun — interesting cool movies. One’s like a heist-gangster film, the other one’s like an action,” he noted.
“…But as a man who has been punched in the head far too many times, I’m like, ‘Sh*t, this is challenging.'” Bisping continued.
“There’s one of these directors, and he’s been great… He’s sending me clips — funnily enough, you’ve just gotta read the script. Over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over again. And you start to really understand the story,” the former middleweight champion explained.
Interestingly, this isn’t the first time Bisping has been more than open about the negative effects he’s suffered from during his combat career.
Bisping reflects on brutal KO loss to Henderson
Going on to successfully avenge his UFC 100 knockout loss to the veteran in his single successful title defense, Bisping was left shellshocked nonetheless in their first pairing.
Flattened with a huge overhand shot, Bisping was already slumped on the Octagon canvas before Dan Henderson followed up with an ugly ground shot to the already-unconscious British veteran.
And years later, Bisping revealed — shockingly, how the shot which rendered him unconscious led to him forgetting the two-month build-up to their grudge match.
“After the fight, I don’t remember anything,” Bisping told TNT Sports back in 2014.
“I remember being in the showers, and I didn’t have a clue what was going on. I was saying to my manager at the time, ‘I can’t be knocked out cause I’m not fighting for another two months, what the hell are you talking about?'” he recalls.
Explaining his ordeal, Bisping had asserted that some people would come along and inform him that they were taking him to the hospital. “And then I’d say again, ‘what’s going on’, I’d just keep repeating myself,” he sadly noted.
