Michael Gavin Joseph Bisping (/ˈbɪspɪŋ/; born 28 February 1979) is an English[5] former mixed martial artist, sports commentator, analyst, and actor.

In 2013, he became legally blind in his right eye after fighting Vitor Belfort, in which a fight-ending head kick had left Bisping with a detached retina.

[8] Bisping has also embarked on an acting career, starring in films such as XXX: Return of Xander Cage (2017), Triple Threat (2019), and the upcoming Red Sonja.

[11] Michael's Polish paternal grandfather, Andrew (Andrzej Bobola Bisping von Gallen), was born in what is now Masaliany, Byerastavitsa Rayon, Hrodna Voblasts, Belarus, descended from German nobility who moved to Poland in the Middle Ages and was a member of the noble Polish Zamoyski family (through his mother), while Michael's English paternal grandmother, Mary Greenwood, was from Clitheroe.

[12][13] Andrzej Bobola Bisping von Gallen fled with his family from Poland to England after the Soviet invasion in September 1939.

In 1994, at the age of 15, he competed as an amateur in Britain's first "no holds barred" competition, a precursor to modern MMA, called Knock Down Sport Budo (KSBO).

[16] After again briefly quitting competition in 1998, Bisping returned to kickboxing to take the Pro British light heavyweight title for a second time.

[18] Bisping made his professional mixed martial arts debut at Pride & Glory 2: Battle of the Ages on 4 April 2004, taking a 0:38 submission victory over Steve Mathews.

In his third MMA match, Bisping was scheduled to face the experienced Renato Sobral at Cage Rage 7 but his opponent pulled out ten days before the event.

[19] At The Ultimate Fight Club UK: Natural Instinct on 29 January 2005, Bisping made his cage kickboxing debut against David Brown in a light heavyweight contest.

Bisping made his debut for the promotion at Ultimate Force on 30 April 2005, defeating Dave Radford to win the vacant Cage Warriors light heavyweight title.

Bisping then competed in another light heavyweight cage kickboxing contest, against Cyrille Diabaté at CWFC: Strike Force 1 on 21 May 2005, losing via decision after the end of the first extra round.

In his first Cage Warriors title defense, Bisping defeated Miika Mehmet at CWFC: Strike Force 2, on 16 July 2005.

[23] Towards the end of 2005, Bisping again successfully defended the Cage Warriors title, this time against Jakob Lovstad[24] and Ross Pointon in the CWFC: Strike Force series of events, leading to a record of 10 wins and no losses.

[25] In early 2006, Bisping was featured on the UFC's The Ultimate Fighter 3 reality television series as a contestant training under Tito Ortiz.

He won a preliminary bout against Kristian Rothaermel by TKO, followed by a semi-final win against Ross Pointon by submission after landing a flying knee and a series of strikes.

[30] Bisping was a special guest referee at the Cage Warriors events Enter The Wolfslair on 5 March 2005 and CWFC: Strike Force 6 on 27 May 2006.

[32][33] Bisping's next match at UFC 78 against fellow Ultimate Fighter winner Rashad Evans resulted in his first loss, via a split decision.

With the support of UFC president Dana White, Bisping decided to drop down a weight division, following his loss to Evans.

1.6 million pay-per-view buys, watched all over the world, and of course, I get knocked out cold after talking lots of smack leading up to the fight.

[57] Multiple fighters subsequently came forward and said that they wanted to fight Bisping in light of the incident, including UFC middleweight notables such as Chael Sonnen, Vitor Belfort, Demian Maia, Alan Belcher and Nate Marquardt.

In the first round Bisping managed to out-box his opponent and score a brief trip takedown, in addition to landing a solid knee.

[74] After nearly a year away from the sport due to his eye injury, Bisping returned to face Tim Kennedy on 16 April 2014 at The Ultimate Fighter Nations Finale.

[87] However, it was announced on 30 September 2015 that Bisping had withdrawn from the bout, citing an elbow injury, and been replaced by Uriah Hall.

[92] With an injury to Chris Weidman forcing him to pull out of the fight, Bisping stepped up on only 17 days' notice to face champion Luke Rockhold for a second time on 4 June 2016 at UFC 199.

[100] On 1 March 2017 while on SportsCenter, Dana White announced that Bisping's next title defense would be against the returning former UFC Welterweight Champion Georges St-Pierre sometime in 2017.

[108] In late December 2018, Bisping appeared on The Joe Rogan Experience, elaborating on his retirement from MMA, which he said was due to eye injury suffered in the fight with Kelvin Gastelum.

[118] In November 2020, it was announced that Bisping would be playing the main role in a boxing movie titled The Journeyman, based on Mark Turley's book.

[63][121] Their eldest son Callum is an accomplished wrestler, a CIF champion as a high schooler who currently competes in NCAA Division II out of San Francisco State University.

Bisping stated his satisfaction after Belfort lost via a knockout from a front kick by Lyoto Machida on 12 May 2018 at UFC 224, in his retirement fight.