Michael Bisping

Michael Gavin Joseph Bisping (; born 28 February 1979) is an English actor, sports analyst, commentator and retired mixed martial artist, who competed in the Middleweight and Light Heavyweight division of the UFC. A professional competitor since 2004, he is a former UFC Middleweight Champion, a former Cage Rage Light Heavyweight Champion and The Ultimate Fighter 3 Light Heavyweight tournament winner. At UFC 78, he became the first British fighter to compete in a UFC main event. At UFC 199, he became the first British fighter to win a UFC Championship. He was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame on 5 July 2019. Early life Bisping was born on a British military base in Nicosia, Cyprus. He is one of five children born to Jan Konrad Bisping and Kathleen ( Armitage) Bisping. and grew up in Clitheroe, Lancashire. He attended St Augustine's Roman Catholic High School, Billington. Michael's Polish paternal grandfather, Andrew (Andrzej Bobola Bisping von Gallen), was born in what is now Masaliany, Byerastavitsa Rayon, Hrodna Voblasts, Belarus, descended from German nobility who moved to Poland in the Middle Ages and was a member of the noble Polish Zamoyski family (through his mother) while Michael's English paternal grandmother, Mary Greenwood, was from Clitheroe. Michael is also related to the Bourbons of the Two Sicilies through one of his great great grandmothers Princess Maria Carolina of Bourbon-Two Sicilies. Andrzej Bobola Bisping von Gallen fled with his family from Poland to England after the Soviet invasion in September 1939. Many members of the noble families were pursued and executed by Soviet Red Army during World War II, including Andrew's father, Jan, who was named after his own grandfather (Andrew's father), served in the British Army. Michael's mother is from Northern Ireland. Bisping has described himself as "English through and through". He began training Jujutsu at the age of eight. In 1994, at the age of 15, he competed as an amateur in Britain's first "no holds barred" competition, a precursor to modern MMA, called Knock Down Sport Budo (KSBO).