Michael Bisping details the rib injury he suffered before Georges St-Pierre fight
Michael Bisping has revealed an interesting detail about his fight against Georges St-Pierre at UFC 217.
'The Count', while recalling the last days of his training camp for St-Pierre, said that he suffered a horrific rib injury while sparring with Dean Amasinger. Amasinger is now one of the directors of the UFC performance institute located in Shanghai, China.
Speaking about the experience in an interview with Submission Radio, the Brit said:
"When I fought Georges St-Pierre, this is in my book and most people in the world haven't read my book so they probably don't know about it but, I hate saying this because it sounds like I'm making an excuse and I'm not but... I had a great training camp but on the last day of my camp, Dean Amasinger [and I sparred]. I shouldn't have done a sparring session a week out, so I did five rounds with a number of guys and in the last round Dean, like his life depended on it, to get a takedown and he landed on top of me and I just hear a [cracking sound] and I just screamed at the top of my voice, because I knew what it was. My ribs were done."
On this date in 2017, Georges St-Pierre returned from a four-year hiatus to fight then-middleweight champ Michael Bisping at UFC 217.
In what would be the final fight of his career, the long-time welterweight champ submitted Bisping to capture gold in a second weight class 🏆 https://t.co/5v3VPCo7lC
Unfortunately for Bisping, he lost the fight, and his middleweight championship, against St-Pierre via a rear-naked choke submission. 'Rush' went on to vacate his middleweight strap soon after the event. The fight against Bisping proved to be the last of his illustrious MMA career.
Michael Bisping explains why he didn't pull out of the fight against Georges St-Pierre
Michael Bisping went on to state that he was already on 'borrowed time' due to the infamous eye injury he suffered earlier in his career against Vitor Belfort. He recalled not even considering pulling out of the fight against St-Pierre:
"Georges St-Pierre is a class act. I've got so much respect for him and he's truly one of the best ever... so there was no way I was pulling out of the fight, especially with Georges, best popular as he is, and what a pay-per-view draw he is and let's be honest, how much money I was going to make from that fight when I was at the end of my career."
Watch Bisping's full appearance on Submission Radio below:
After the loss against St-Pierre, Bisping decided to try his luck against Kelvin Gastelum at UFC's China event in November 2017. The fight did not go the Englishman's way as he suffered a brutal knockout loss against Gastelum. Michael Bisping retired soon after the bout.
He now works as an analyst and broadcaster for BT Sport, and is also a regular for UFC's official commentating team along with Jon Anik, Joe Rogan and Daniel Cormier.
See the replay of UFC Fight Night China: Bisping vs. Gastelum at 10 p.m. ET on @fightnet! https://t.co/sifFoRDCfW