Former UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping has officially announced his retirement from mixed martial arts Monday on his Believe You Me Podcast, bringing an end to a 14-year career.
“So obviously I’ve teased this for a long time now, I might fight again, I might not. And unfortunately it’s not a fight that I’m announcing. I am going to announce my official retirement from mixed martial arts,” Bisping said.
Bisping, 39, has spoken openly about his indecision regarding his retirement since he suffered a first-round knockout loss to Kelvin Gastelum last November at UFC Shanghai, his second loss in a span of 22 days. Bisping admitted Monday that he was prepared to retire in June 2016 at UFC 199 if he lost his long-awaited shot at the middleweight title against Luke Rockhold, however his upset of Rockhold changed his plans.
Having dealt with complications with his right eye since 2013, Bisping revealed that he suffered a separate injury to his left eye following the Gastelum fight. He stated that he was seeing “flashes” out of his left eye at a party in the aftermath of his loss to Gastelum, and those issues have continued.
“I realized there’s no flash going on; it’s just my eye, and every time I look left, it flashes. And it still does it now when it’s dark,” Bisping said. “It’s light now so I can’t see it. So I started freaking out, thinking oh my God, I don’t believe this, I’ve got a detached retina in my good eye. I have problems with my bad eye, it doesn’t look good, so obviously I was kind of freaking out.”
Bisping said doctors diagnosed him with a vitreous detachment in his left eye, which is a condition that puts him at an increased risk for another detached retina. The former middleweight champion stated that he came to the decision to hang up his gloves Sunday night after watching the film Journeyman on a plane — a film in which an aging prizefighter suffers severe mental and physical problems as a result of brain trauma sustained in a late-career fight.
“I was watching this movie last night and I just thought, it ain’t worth it,” Bisping said. “It ain’t worth it. I mean, what else am I going to do? I’ve won the belt, I’ve had tons of wins, I’ve done everything that I set out to achieve. What’s the point in flogging a dead horse? Not that I’m a dead horse, but what’s the point? I’ve done everything that I set out to achieve, and fortunately now I’ve used my platform to open other doors. You know, you’ve got to know when to walk away. I’m almost 40 years old, the time is now. So, I want to say, first of all, thank you to my wife. Without her, it wouldn’t have happened. That’s a fact. She was incredible every single step of the way. My children. My dad. My dad was amazing. And of course everyone in the U.K. and around the world that supported me.
“So, yeah, there you go. Great career. That’s that. Thank you everybody.”