The Ultimate Fighter: US vs UK Coach’s Blog –

The Ultimate Fighter: US vs UK Coach’s Blog – Michael BispingBy Michael ‘The Count’ Bisping

Week Six - I’ve been waiting for this blog so I could at least explain why I wasn’t at Dean’s



fight the previous week. I’ve been asked about nothing else over the last few days – even live on UK television – but until now couldn’t say anything about why I missed the fight.

I am not going to try to excuse missing Dean’s fight, and I haven’t done so since it happened in January. All I can do is explain how it happened.

As you watch the series, it looks as though we’d been training for weeks and weeks, but the reality is at this point I’d only been in Vegas for eight days. And I was still jet-lagged to hell.

Normally, I never have any trouble with jetlag at all, but this trip killed me for some reason. My body clock was still on English time, I was wide awake at 5AM and dog-tired in the middle of the afternoon. Getting to Vegas three days later because of the visa problems certainly didn’t help me, as I literally went straight from the plane to the gym for my first training session.

Because I was training so hard on so little sleep, I was getting exhausted and I didn’t want to let my team down by turning up with a lame “let’s not train today” excuse like other coaches have done.

Hindsight is always 20/20, but I guess I should have had my assistant coaches Dave and Mario do a day’s training while I had a day sleeping trying to get my body clock on Vegas time, but I felt that would be short-changing my team. I was the coach, and I felt should be there, hands-on, each session.

But I was desperate to finally, somehow, get a good night’s sleep and so I got some sleeping tablets. I was a little nervous to use them, as I’d never taken them before, but after trying to get to sleep without them I finally took them about 2AM and I was out like BA Baracus.... and woke up at 5PM!

I couldn’t believe the time on the bedside clock. I checked my watch, but it was the same time – 5PM. An hour after the fight! I couldn’t believe it. I rushed to the gym, but it was too late. I’d missed Dean’s fight.

It sounds like a pathetic, weak excuse, I know, that I overslept but that’s what happened. I was completely embarrassed, I’m not unprofessional in my career, and I took my role as TUF coach very seriously, and most of all I’d let Dean down.

Like you saw on the show, I couldn’t look Dean in the eye afterwards. But he didn’t hold it against me. He was understanding, but to this day I feel awful about it.

Regarding Dean’s fight, I don’t think it had a big affect on the outcome; he had the same coaches who’ve gotten me this far in my own career and who will be coaching me against Dan Henderson at UFC 100. But still, I owed him big time.

Myself and Dean have squared it up, we remain good friends and he will be the first to tell you I am helping him in his career to this day. He’s a great young talent, he has everything to shoot for and if there’s anything else I can do for him I will in a heartbeat.

Dean and myself are cool, he knows how much I like and respect him.

But back then I felt awful for letting him and the UFC down.

So, at the next fight Dana was hanging around, whereas usually he’s very busy and gets in and out pretty quickly.

I thought to myself: “Oh God! I am in for a bollocking here!” so, this is a bit embarrassing, too, like a naughty school kid trying to avoid detention I ducked out of the gym and hit the road. Five minutes later my mobile was ringing... and it was Dana.

I pulled over and answered and he said: “You got the hell out of there quickly. Lorenzo and I want to take you to dinner; we’re going in about 90 minutes.”

I thought for sure Dana and Lorenzo were taking me out to give me a right bollocking for being the first coach ever to miss a TUF fight. Trying to play it cool, I asked if there was anything in particular he wanted to talk about and he said he and Lorenzo just enjoy my company. After I hung up, I turned to Dave who was in the car with me and said: “Dana AND Lorenzo are gonna kick my arse for me.”

I turned up at the restaurant and Dana was there. I sat down and Dana was talking about this and that and I was just waiting for him to say: “So, you really messed up...” and hit me with it. But he kept talking about all sorts of things and eventually I couldn’t take it anymore so I just asked him if he was pissed off.

Dana laughed his head off and shouted “Hey! Lorenzo! Bisping thinks we are here to kick the crap out of him!”

Basically, Dana said it was my mistake. But to be honest, I felt guilty enough already, no one needed to tell me about it.

After all that, I was anxious to get back to training and winning. The next fight was Martin ‘Stapes’ Stapleton against Cameron Dollar, which is a fight I felt we’d win.

I was a little shocked to see how nervous Cameron was. During filming, I didn’t see any of that. All I ever saw of Cameron was him being very ****y. Fear in fighting is a good thing, it sharpens your mind in a hurry, but to be honest, Dollar was s**tting himself here.

Some people have said that Dollar was too scared, but I think it takes a man to admit his fears and go through them.

Stapes was the exact opposite to being afraid. He said it himself, after getting shot at in Iraq, and seeing some of the things he’s witnessed as a Royal Marine, a 15 minute MMA fight isn’t anything to be losing sleep over.

As for the fight itself, I think Stapes was very unlucky to get hit at the back of the head so early. You only need to ask Georges St-Pierre about how hard it is to recover from that kind of shot, especially if you take it in the opening few minutes.

Not taking away from Matt Serra or Cameron Dollar, these things happen in MMA when you can duck down below the waist unlike in boxing, but I felt badly for Stapes. He didn’t have a clue what knocked him down when I asked him after the fight.

Stapes has a ton of potential, he’s a good all-round fighter, and his fitness is something else, as is his mental strength. I believe we will see a lot more from him in the future. His job is being the strength and conditioning coach for the Royal Marines, and I absolutely have gone to him for advice on my conditioning.

I couldn’t help but notice on the episode that Henderson said “The look of shock on Bisping’s face was as nice as I expected it to be.”

Obviously, I didn’t know Dan had said that until I watched. Well, you can’t win them all, Daniel, and I can’t wait to see the look of shock on YOUR face when I mince your arse like burger meat on July 11.

The next fight was picked by Dan, and it was Frankie Lester v James Wilks of my team.

Watching it back, Team USA were saying that James couldn’t do anything on his feet, but it just goes to show how badly they got it wrong. He is actually even better on his feet than on the ground, which I found out in my first session with him.

Frankie has taken some stick for saying how he was going to knock James’s teeth out and how he hated him, but I completely understand that some fighters have to manufacture dislike for their opponent. To be honest, I do that a little bit, too, to help me focus and motivate me in training. It is a little irrational, but whatever gets you fired up for early morning runs...

As for the fight, while I was concerned at times when James was dropping his hands and Frankie was swinging for the fences, I felt James was always winning what was another great fight from the TUF 9 cast.

Towards the end of the first round I felt James was laying a beating on him, and Frankie was pretty much saved by the horn.

At the time I had no idea the American had a problem with his teeth or his gumshield, I couldn’t see what was happening from across the other side of the Octagon. All I knew was that my guy was in control and the other guy was getting extra time, which is why I started getting on the referee’s case to either start the round or wave the fight off in favour of James.

You only get 60 seconds rest, and any trouble with the mouthpiece surely should have been worked on at the start of that period, not after it? I am not sure of the rulebook, but what do I know, I am just a moaning Brit! ;-)

Anyway, another episode in, and Team UK remains in the lead. But at this point I was still thinking Team UK could easily have won every single fight. Driving back to the apartment I’d been put up in, I vowed to train my team even harder and smarter...