BRITAIN has been waiting for years for its first UFC world champion and, on Saturday June 3, 2016, that wait finally ended when Michael ‘The Count’ Bisping shocked the world with a stunning first-round knockout of middleweight champion Luke Rockhold.
That win saw Clitheroe lad Bisping reach the Everest of a career that has seen almost as many downs as ups.
The Brit built an impressive record on the domestic scene, claiming titles with Cage Rage and Cage Warriors, before earning a spot on the third season of The Ultimate Fighter.
Competing as a light heavyweight, Bisping won the season, picking up a six-figure contract with the UFC into the bargain and catapulting himself into the big leagues, where he would face the best multi-discipline fighters in the world.
But the journey from UFC newcomer to UFC champion has been far from straightforward for ‘The Count’.
Three times he reached a title eliminator for the UFC middleweight championship, and three times he fell at the final hurdle.
His losses to Dan Henderson, Chael Sonnen and Vitor Belfort all came with the Brit standing within touching distance of a shot at the UFC middleweight title, held by the great Anderson Silva.
But two damaging knockouts (to Henderson and Belfort) and one dubious decision (against Sonnen) saw his dreams dashed each time. People began to think the plucky Brit would go down as one of the best fighters never to get a shot at UFC championship gold.
But despite the media and fellow fighters writing him off as a busted flush, Bisping boldly declared “I’m going nowhere” and bounced back. Even a lengthy layoff with a career-threatening detached – then redetached – retina didn’t deter him.
He fought his way back to the top of the UFC middleweight division and came back from the brink of defeat to beat former champion Silva in a five-round thriller at The O2 earlier this year.
And when the call came in June to step in at just two weeks’ notice to fight for the middleweight title against another man who had previously defeated him decisively – Luke Rockhold – Bisping stepped off a movie set, flew down to LA and produced the performance of his career.
With a little more than a week’s dedicated training, Bisping shocked the world by knocking out the super-confident Rockhold in just three minutes 36 seconds.
It was a landmark moment for the sport in this country and the culmination of a career of a fighter who simply refused to give up on his dream.
Now, this coming weekend, Bisping returns home to the UK to headline a UFC event in Manchester for the very first time.
The man who once worked in a slaughterhouse and did door-to-door sales now comes back to the UK a world champion looking to defend his belt for the first time and cement his position as one of the best fighters on the planet.
And with the Brit's career record on UK soil reading 18 wins, no losses, Bisping is determined to keep that unbeaten home record intact when he faces his old foe Henderson at UFC 204 on Saturday night.
Bisping will be roared to the heavens by a 16,000-strong crowd at the Manchester Arena when he steps into the Octagon in the early hours of Sunday morning.
And with hugely respected MMA legend Henderson vowing to retire at the conclusion of the bout, regardless of the result, it promises to be a passionate, raucous and emotional affair as two of the UFC's all-time great middleweights do battle one last time for all the marbles.
UFC 204: Bisping v Henderson takes place at the Manchester Arena on Saturday October 8. The preliminary bouts are live on UFC Fight Pass from 11:30pm, with the TV prelims (1am) and main card (3am) aired live on BT Sport 2.
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