Cut off Michael Bisping at the neck and you will likely find that he is still goading you to come back for more as his head goes rolling across the floor. He is a man who absolutely will not quit. Which is why, at the age of 37, he has become the first Briton to win a UFC world title, and, in defending it in the early hours of Sunday, the first person ever to win 20 fights in their UFC career. Two days before his latest victory, against Dan Henderson at the Manchester Arena, Bisping was asked why he is still fighting after all this time. The money, he said, and more than that, he just loves the buzz he gets when he wins. “It’s a great feeling. Anyone that’s ever won a fight knows that.”
We can only guess exactly how good Bisping felt after beating Henderson. Nobody got a chance to ask, because he was sent straight to the hospital. He had predicted that there would be “a few sore heads on Sunday morning”, but however much anyone drank, nobody can have had a bigger headache than the one he must have been suffering. Henderson caught him flush, twice, with his lethal over-hand right, a punch so famous that it has its own nickname: the H-Bomb. Henderson, 46, retired right after the fight. It possibly was not a personal decision so much as a public demonstration of the USA’s continuing commitment to strategic nuclear disarmament.
Related: Bisping beats Henderson on points to retain title in thriller
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