Michael Bisping was once the undisputed UFC middleweight champion, an actor in a notable movie and a friend of Conor McGregor’s - but only two of those remain the case now.
The Hall of Fame inductee has shed light now on how he and McGregor fell out from 2016 onwards, stemming from a fight the Dublin-born fighter lost which had a knock-on effect to his side hustle.
Bisping took on a Q-and-A session from fans on his YouTube channel and explained how it all unravelled between the pair, claiming that McGregor was due to appear in Vin Diesel’s 2017 film XXX: Return of Xander Cage.
However, defeat to Nate Diaz meant McGregor had to step aside to focus on a rematch and Bisping instead went to audition, eventually winning the role of the character Hawk. That left McGregor unimpressed and it was downhill from there as Bisping saw success in the ring, too.
“I auditioned, I won the part based on the audition,” Bisping said.
“Vin Diesel didn’t even know who I was – not a massive fight fan. I got the audition, and then at the Nate Diaz 2 press conference, they did in the Ultimate Fighter gym, Conor was asked, ‘Hey, what do you think about Bisping getting that part in XXX, and then came off XXX and became champion of the world?’ And Conor said, ‘Well, I handed that to Bisping on a silver platter, and I didn’t even get a thank you, and, in fact, he owes me a [royalties] percentage.”
Bisping says he didn’t react well to the barb and chose to get his own back by publicly predicting a defeat for McGregor against Eddie Alvarez, which in turn led to a back-and-forth exchange.
“Then I got a slew of abusive and threatening messages off of Conor, I did. I won’t go into detail, but I f***ng told him to watch his f***ing mouth that’s for sure. So yeah, anyway, there you go. That’s the story of the great love, romance between us two that finished.”
Bisping retired in 2018 and is now a colour commentator for UFC, while McGregor is still in recovery after a leg-break suffered in defeat to Dustin Poirier last year. He has lost three of his last four fights but is expected to return to action this summer.
