UFC
Injured Michael Bisping admits "maybe we go too hard," but contends hard training a necessity
Jun 11, 2012 - 10:35:17 PM Injured Michael Bisping admits "maybe we go too hard," but contends hard training a necessity

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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

Michael Bisping was forced out of a fight with Tim Boetsch at UFC 149 last week, suffering a torn meniscus in his knee that required minor surgery. Though he's only going to be sidelined for a short time - he claims he'll be back in four weeks - that did take him out of an important bout with Boetsch.

Bisping says the decision to pull out of the fight wasn't an easy one, but ultimately he felt it was the best decision for him at the moment.

"I've never, ever once pulled out of a fight," Bisping said on Monday in an interview with Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour. "[Before] the Ultimate Fighter final I was training with Georges St-Pierre, and I tore my posterior cruciate ligament, my PCL, several days before the fight, and I still went ahead and fought. I've done training camps with one hand. I've constantly fought injured, because that's part of the game. That's the way that it goes."

"It was horrible. I was constantly second-guessing myself. Fortunately, I've got a good manager, Audie [Attar] from Paradigm Sports Management, and I've got a good team of people around me giving me good advice. They're not interested in me fighting just to take a percentage, they're interested in what's good for me. Because I was going to take the fight."

UFC President Dana White expressed his thoughts on the recent rash of injuries in an interview on Friday, stating that he believes fighters are overtraining and hurting each other. Still, Bisping thinks that's just a part of being a high level competitor.

"Maybe we do go too hard," he admitted, "but that's the way you've got to train to get ready for a fight. You've got to train the way you fight. If you don't train the way you fight, when you fight you're going to be shocked."

By not taking this particular bout, Bisping may find himself being passed up by a couple of names in the middleweight pecking order by the time he's able to return. One such name is Hector Lombard, whom Bisping criticized heavily when word came out he may receive an early title shot in the division. For Bisping, he just doesn't understand why a fighter like Lombard is even in the conversation that quickly.

"I'll be honest, I've never seen the guy fight," Bisping admitted. "I've never seen the guy fight once, because I've never seen Bellator. I don't watch it, no interest. By all accounts he's an aggressive fighter and he knocks people out and all the rest of it, but I've never seen him fight. He could be the best thing since sliced bread. I don't know. What I do know is he's never had a fight in the UFC, so why the [expletive] is he getting a title shot?"

Despite his protestations toward Lombard's name being in the mix, he expressed understanding as to why he hasn't gotten a shot yet in his UFC career. Ultimately, that's on him for losing certain fights he's needed to win, and he understands that. Now he's on the mend and hoping to make his own case when he returns.

Penick's Analysis: I can understand that mindset from fighters, where you've got to train in a manner that's going to translate in the fights themselves. It's similar to all pro sports; practice is a necessity to not only develop skills, but to hone them and to make sure you're capable of doing all that's necessary come game time. Perhaps fighters may take too many full speed days, not giving themselves enough time to recover between hard sessions, but that's a hard thing to crack down on. For Bisping here, it's tough to pull out of a fight at this time when other pieces are moving in the division that could push him down that ladder. Still, it's a situation that needed to be taken care of, and he risked further injury by continuing to train for the fight and by stepping in on fight night. Getting it taken care of is simply the smarter move at this point. We'll see what happens in the division in the meantime, but he'll certainly need to come back strong to keep himself on track for a potential title fight.

[Michael Bisping art by Grant Gould (c) MMATorch.com]