A former UFC champion came away from a recent Fight Night event puzzled.
On August 23, some big finishes took place inside the Octagon as the UFC returned to Shanghai for a Fight Night event.
Johnny Walker defeated Zhang Mingyang in the main event after landing a nasty leg kick, but the light heavyweight headliner wasn’t the only notable highlight.
Michael Bisping was left stunned by Xiao Long’s relentless elbow offense in his bantamweight matchup with You Su-young.
However, there was another moment during the former UFC middleweight champion’s recent trip overseas to call the fights that has stuck with him since the event.
Michael Bisping left baffled by Michel Pereira lifting weights ahead of his UFC Shanghai fight
On a recent episode of the Believe You Me Podcast, Michael Bisping was joined by his fellow UFC commentator Paul Felder.
The two men started to recap some of the highlights from the UFC Shanghai card, with ‘The Count’ stopping to tell a story when they got to one fight in particular.
Michel Pereira suffered a devastating knockout loss to the returning Kyle Daukaus in just 43 seconds.
After celebrating Daukaus’ performance, Bisping looked to address a concern that he had regarding Pereira’s preparations after watching him on the day of the fight.
“Well, I want to talk about the craziness of Michel Pereira because I mentioned this on commentary a little bit. Paul, you know, you’ve done this a long time. You know about sports science, you know about recovery, you know about the body, right? You don’t lift weights in the final week of a fight camp, do you?”
Bisping went on to say that on the morning of the fight, Pereira was joined by his team in the gym where he was going through a full weights session.
The former UFC middleweight champion was left baffled by what he was seeing from a fighter who was set to compete inside the Octagon later that day.
“I’m sitting there lifting my weights, doing my little routines, thinking, ‘What is he doing?!’. You don’t do that. You do not lift weights on fight day. You just don’t. It was the craziest thing I’ve seen in my life, I was in disbelief.”
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Michael Bisping reflects on his commentator’s curse moment at UFC Shanghai
Another notable aspect of the fight between Kyle Daukaus and Michel Pereira was Michael Bisping’s commentary immediately before the finish.
One of the best recent examples of the commentator’s curse saw the submission specialist Daukaus produce a stunning knockout just as Bisping suggested that we might see the opposite.
“I say on commentary, ‘Yeah, well, you know, one thing Kyle Daukaus isn’t really known for is his explosive power.’ Right as I say that, boom, right hook. Knocks him out cold,” Bisping said on Believe You Me.
After this defeat, Pereira has now lost three fights in a row after going on an eight-fight win streak inside the Octagon.