Michael Bisping’s second title defense as UFC middleweight champion was scheduled against Georges St-Pierre at UFC 217 in 2017 in New York City. It was the night when he dropped the title to GSP via fourth round stoppage, and the prelude to his imminent retirement.
Now 40 years of age and a fresh inductee into the UFC Hall-of-Fame, “The Count” says he could’ve easily outclassed the former long-time welterweight champion, had he been 100% healthy.
“Well, I know for a fact I could wipe the floor with Georges St-Pierre, so I’d like to do that one again,” Bisping told MMAJunkie during the promotional tour of his autobiography Quitters Never Win. “I tore my ribs a week before that fight; it’s all in the book. I didn’t break them. I tore the cartilage. I couldn’t move very well.”
Bisping was apparently in so much pain that he had to sneak in a shot of lidocaine, an anesthetic that is not on USADA’s banned substance list.
“I sneaked (sic) in a needle full of lidocaine, and I was going to, in the toilets, inject myself with lidocaine into the rib, which would numb the rib so I wouldn’t have any pain,” he recalled. “Because it’s not a banned substance from USADA, I could have gone to the commission and said, ‘Hey, I want to inject myself with lidocaine.’
“That wouldn’t have been the issue. But the fact that I had an injury, they might have pulled me from the fight.”
Adamant to alleviate himself from the pain, Bisping had to call his doctor on the spot. Ultimately, he was advised against doing so because of the risks involved.
“But then my doctor said, ‘You’ve got to be careful, because if you inject yourself with lidocaine in the rib and you get it slightly wrong, you could puncture your lung and die,’” he explained. “So I had it all in the bag, and I was going to FaceTime my doctor, on the toilet while the commission members were outside, and he was going to talk me through injecting myself with lidocaine.
“But when I got there I’m like, ‘This is too much, bollocks to it.’ So I just went out there and fought injured. Everyone was saying, ‘You weren’t moving too well.’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah, no sh-t!’ My ribs were seriously messed up!”
Bisping took a fight against Kelvin Gastelum three weeks later as a late replacement for Anderson Silva to headline the UFC’s card in Shanghai, China. He ended up being knocked out in less than three minutes of action.
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