Former middleweight champion Michael Bisping says exorcising the demons from his loss to Georges St-Pierre at UFC 217 is the driving force behind his decision to step up and face Kelvin Gastelum.
Bisping stepped up on short notice to face Gastelum following his initial opponent, Anderson Silva, being flagged for a USADA violation.
The Englishman claimed that his title losing defeat still bothers him, which is why he put himself forward for the Gastelum a fight a week after his bout in Madison Square Garden.
“I’ve been pretty pissed off, which is fine,” said Bisping on the latest episode of The MMA Hour, “there are a bigger problems in the world.
“The fact that I lost that fight, you know, it bothers me. I know if I had that fight ten times I’d win that fight ten times. I know I would, but I lost to Georges and here we are with this gift from the Gods.
“I get a chance to exorcise my demons. I get a chance to get back in the win column – all good things.
“I text Dana, I said, ‘Listen, I know a guy that fought last week who has no injuries that can fight in Shanghai’. He text back, ‘interesting’, and I text back, ‘very’. Twenty minutes later, I get a phone call. We agreed, we said we’d do it.”
After being knocked down in the third round of his fight with GSP from a left hook before being submitted, it was argued that Bisping was not physically ready to fight again on such short notice.
The Brit insisted that underwent some tests to make sure he was in good enough condition to get back into the Octagon.
“I got a call from legal department saying, ‘Mike, we need to know that you’re there mentally and physically, how do you feel?’
“I said physically I’m fine, but mentally I’m wounded. The only thing that’s going to make that right is if I’m able to fight again. I’m emotionally and mentally scarred, but physically I’m fine,” he said.
“There was a little bit of testing – an MRI and what not. I got checked up and the New York commission was fine with that, so there we go, we’re all good.”
Get the latest gear
