The damp working-class neighborhoods within Lancashire, England, have a way of trapping their own. Residents toil in the factories that line the polluted Manchester Ship Canal then pass the night away in one of the local pubs.
Michael Bisping was living that life, departing his home before dawn each day and returning long after the sun had set. In between, he worked various blue-collar jobs, performing such rudimentary tasks as lifting 60-pound bags of sand from a conveyor belt and neatly stacking them.
The long, monotonous shifts were good for one thing. They allowed Bisping to daydream of a better life. If he was going to spend his prime years working with his hands, he might as well use them as fists.
Five years later, those daydreams have become a reality.
Bisping, one of the top mixed martial artists in the Ultimate Fighting Championships, is scheduled to take one of the biggest steps of his career today in Birmingham, England, taking on Chris Leben (18-4) in the main event of UFC 89. The three-round middleweight bout is scheduled to be shown tape delayed on Spike TV beginning at 9 p.m. PDT.
Bisping, 29, brings a 16-1 record into the fight, his only defeat by split decision last December against Rashad Evans in a light heavyweight bout. Evans went on to score a devastating knockout last month against former champion Chuck Liddell.
"This fight is big for both guys," said UFC President Dana White. "[Bisping] was fighting at 205 pounds, but this move down should make him stronger."
Bisping planned to drop down to middleweight after his first defeat at light heavyweight, but it took longer than expected. After coming so close to beating Evans, Bisping still had second thoughts.
"It didn't even feel like a defeat," Bisping said. "It wasn't like I went in there and got knocked out."
Bisping ultimately decided to stick with his original plan and drop down to the 185-pound division, where he mowed through his first opponent. Bisping was then scheduled to fight Leben in June, but Leben canceled about six weeks before because he was jailed in Oregon for violating probation on a drunk-driving conviction.
Jason Day stepped in for Leben and Bisping scored a first-round technical knockout. It became obvious that Bisping has found his ideal weight class.
"He's way faster, quicker," said Brian Talbert, one of Bisping's training partners. "He was always fighting bigger, stronger guys that were cutting 20 pounds just to fight at that weight and he didn't have to cut weight."
