- published: 17 Jun 2016
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Michael Gavin Joseph Bisping (born 28 February 1979) is an English mixed martial artist. He fights in the middleweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship and is the former Cage Warriors Fighting Championship Light Heavyweight Champion, former Cage Rage Light Heavyweight Champion and The Ultimate Fighter 3 Light Heavyweight Tournament winner. As of March 2012, Bisping is ranked the No. 4 middleweight in the world by Sherdog.
Bisping was born in manchester UK in 1979, but moved to Bridlington, East Yorkshire, England when he was a child. Taking an early interest in martial arts, Bisping began training in a traditional form of jiu-jitsu known as Yawara Ryu under Paul Lloyd Davies when he was 8 years old. In 1994, at the age of 15, Bisping competed as an amateur in England's first "no holds barred" competition, a precursor to modern MMA, called Knock Down Sport Budo (KSBO), organised by Davies.
At the age of 18, Bisping decided to abandon his martial arts training in order "to pursue real life". But less than a year later Bisping began training kickboxing and karate on the advice of Alan Clarking, owner of Black Knights gym, who saw potential in the young fighter. Bisping enjoyed a short, but successful kickboxing career, winning the North West Area title and later the Pro British light heavyweight kickboxing title. After again briefly quitting competition in 1998, Bisping returned to kickboxing to take the Pro British light heavyweight title for a second time. Soon after winning his second kickboxing title, Bisping was forced to abandon his full-time training for a "real job". Bisping worked in factories, slaughterhouses, as an upholsterer, a postman, a tiler, a plasterer, a double-glazing door salesman,production line operative making barbecues at Rectella in Clitheroe and also a relatively successful DJ around the north-west club scene.