Michael Bisping won’t be pushing for a spot in the UFC Hall of Fame

Michael Bisping’s UFC career is as Hall of Fame worthy as they come. He realized championship heights, capturing the UFC middleweight title in 2016. He won season three of The Ultimate Fighter. He was one of the pioneers of the UK MMA scene, which has since become one of the most prosperous fight scenes on earth. He contributed to the sport in many other ways, most notably as an analyst on Fox, and now as a commentator on Dana White’s Tuesday Night Contender Series…

No matter how you swing it, Michael Bisping deserves a spot in the UFC Hall of Fame. Yet you will not catch him campaigning for that spot.

“It’s not something I’ve necessarily thought about but it’s something a lot of people have said to me,” Bisping told MMANytt of a potential induction into the UFC Hall of Fame.

“It’s not something I’m campaigning for or anything like that. That’s not something you campaign for. That’s embarrassing. It’s up to the UFC to recognize that. I’d like to think so, I’ve put the work in and I think I deserve it but that’s down to the UFC.”

Michael Bisping’s Hall of Fame worth career recently drew to a close — at least in terms of competition. The British legend announced his retirement on his podcast, Believe You Me, earlier this year. He explained his choice to retire on a subsequent episode.

“I’ve always wanted to leave the door open,” Bisping said. “Dana [White called me, and I even tried to dig my way out of it then. He said, ‘Hey Mike, are you sure about this?’ And I almost talked myself out of it. It kind of came to a point where I had to make it final.”

“The UFC emailed me and said, ‘Do you want to be left in the testing pool, just in case?’ And I said, ‘No. Take me out.

“The time was right, honestly. It feels like a massive burden has been lifted off my shoulders, because I was always second-guessing, always thinking, ‘Am I gonna fight once more?’ Now, it’s done.”

“I’m ready to focus on other things, and I wouldn’t have been able to if I didn’t commit to retirement,” Bisping said. “I want to commentate for [Dana White’s Tuesday Night] Contender Series, and then move on to calling UFC fights. That’s the plan.”

Do you think Michael Bisping belongs in the UFC Hall of Fame? At the very least, he should probably be knighted, right?

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 6/25/2018.