Michael Bisping: Everything you need to know about the British UFC champion

Bisping made history on Saturday night when he became the first British man to ever hold gold in the UFC

Michael Bisping (Getty)

UFC 199 was an historic night in mixed martial arts and the man grabbing all the headlines was the UK's own Michael 'The Count' Bisping.

At 37 years of age, Bisping is a veteran of the organisation and has fought in the UFC for ten years having made his debut back in 2006. His time in the UFC has been littered with both highs and lows but on Saturday night he did what many said he would never do when he defeated American Luke Rockhold and raised the UFC middleweight title above his head.

Background...

Bisping was born on a British military base in Nicosia, Cyprus but was raised from a very early age in Manchester, England where he found his love for martial arts at just the age of eight. Calling Bisping a pioneer of British mixed martial arts is really not over exaggerating and in 1994, at the tender 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).

At 18, he quit training MMA to pursue a 'normal life' but he was soon talked back into the sport and he began training boxing, karate and kickboxing with Allan Clarkin, the owner of Black Knights Kickboxing. Bisping then went on to have a successful kickboxing career and at one point was the Pro British light heavyweight champion. Bisping then quit the sport due to the lack of money and then had several normal jobs which he said in his autobiography included working factories, slaughterhouses, demolition companies; in addition to working as an upholsterer, postman, tiler, plasterer and salesman.

As of today, Bisping has three children including two boys and one girl. He resides in California where he lives, trains and works as an analyst for Fox Sports.

Michael Bisping can become Britain's first UFC champion if he defeats Luke Rockhold at UFC 199 (Getty)

Mixed Martial Arts...

Bisping turned professional in 2004 and competed in several UK based MMA promotions before getting his big break on the world scene in 2006 when he competed on the UFC 'The Ultimate Fighter 3' series in which he won the light heavyweight portion of the series.

After being victorious there, Bisping began a turbulent career which followed a very familiar pattern where he would get one victory away from a title shot but lose the all important fight that would set him up for his big night.

Down the years, Bisping has had many highs including outstanding performances against the likes of Elvis Sinosic, Jason Day, Jason Miller, Brian Stann and Cung Lee. All these wins, however, were matched by devastating losses against opponents such as Chael Sonnen, Vitor Belfort and perhaps most memorably, his loss to Dan Henderson at UFC 100 where he was knocked viciously unconscious in front of 1.6 million people watching on pay-per-view in the most devastating of circumstances.

After all these highs and lows Bisping had been tagged 'the nearly man' but his luck changed this year when he picked up the biggest win of his career at UFC London in February when he defeated the legendary Anderson Silva, a fighter who many believe is the greatest mixed martial artist of all time. Bisping won that fight by unanimous decision and it put him in the frame for getting a title shot which many thought would come later in the year.

The opportunity arrived quicker than most expected. Two weeks ago Luke Rockhold's expected opponent for UFC 199 Chris Weidman pulled out with injury and Bisping was drafted in on just fourteen days notice to fill his spot. The rest, well it writes itself. On Saturday night Bisping fulfilled what he said and believed was 'his destiny' and with two swings of his left fist he did and said what he was going to do and that was knock Rockhold out cold and lift the UFC middleweight championship of the world to forever write his name in UFC history.

British UFC fighter Michael Bisping (Getty Images)

Bisping's reaction to winning at UFC 199...

Speaking after fight Bisping was overcome with emotion. "I'm elated I'm very, very happy but I always knew I was capable of this," Bisping told UFC.com. "I always knew I could do it. I quit work when we had two children and we were broke at the time but my wife had faith in me that I could do this. I used to sleep in my car. People don't know the journey I've been on and now here I am and I'm champion of the world."

Bisping then went on to thank everyone who had helped him achieve his incredible achievement. "I want to thank everyone that has helped me along the way. I'm just over the moon and I just want to say to everyone in the UK and all UFC fans all over the world and to everybody, including everybody who doubted me - look at this belt. I'm just very, very happy."

He continued: "Outside of my marrying my wife and having my children this is the greatest day of my life."