After Bisping’s shocking loss to Georges St Pierre at 217 and then his quick KO loss to Kelvin Gastelum just a few weeks later as a short-notice replacement fight at UFC China, the former middleweight champion made it clear that his time as a professional fighter was nearly coming to a close.
Bisping said he wanted one more fight to end his career on but as possible bouts with Rashad Evans and Lyoto Machida have fallen through, the question became, ”what fight could interest Bisping enough to return one more time instead of heeding the wishes of his family and walking away from MMA?”
Speaking recently on his Believe You Me podcast, Bisping said that a trilogy fight with the man Bisping took the title from, Luke Rockhold, would certainly interest him as a swan song. “If that motherf**ker wants to throw down at 205 [pounds], yeah, we can entertain that, buddy,” Bisping said. “I’ve got no problem knocking you out again.”
“I exposed Luke Rockhold,” said Bisping. “I knocked him out. David Branch nearly knocked him out. Yoel knocked him out. I quite literally took his soul, so if he wants me to do it again, that is one that would stoke the fires so to speak.”
With Bisping unwilling to fight any “any young guy looking to make a name off me” for his final bout, a match with Rockhold would likely be his last option.
If he does retire off of this fight, that is. Bisping conclude this discussion by suggesting that he could walk away from the game right now and be financially secure, or he could even stick around for one more fight after a potential Rockhold clash if the UFC made it worth his while.
“I’ll fight him at 205, I’ll fight him at 185,” concluded Bisping. “I’m not bothered. That’s if I’m gonna fight again, if the deal is right. Fortunately now, I’m in a good place. I still love fighting. Fighting’s what I do, that’s provided me this platform and I still feel like I’ve got at least one more in me. I’ve got more than that in me but I’m just saying from my business perspective maybe one more makes sense, maybe two more, maybe no more. We’ll see what the future holds if the deal is right.”