WASHINGTON – Michael Bisping has quite the history with The Ultimate Fighter.
Not only did Bisping enter the UFC by winning season three of The Ultimate Fighter, but the former UFC champion also served as a coach for three seasons of the reality T.V. series. Bisping’s first season as a coach came in 2009 when he coached Team United Kingdom on season nine of TUF against Dan Henderson, who coached Team U.S. Bisping then returned to the show again in 2011, coaching opposite to Jason Miller. Now, 15 years later, Bisping just wrapped his third season of TUF, this time competing with his friend and fellow retired fighter turned UFC commentator Daniel Cormier.
So, that leaves the question: Who’s the most annoying rival coach Bisping has to compete against?
“Dan Henderson wasn’t annoying at all,” Bisping told MMA Junkie. “He’s a very level-headed guy, so he wasn’t annoying at all. DC’s awesome. He’s the man, but he’s also the man. He picks his times. He wants it like this. He wants it like that. But come on, without a shadow of a doubt, Jason ‘Mayhem’ Miller, right? Being around him for that long, I couldn’t wait to fight him. But wish him all the best. That was a long time ago.”
Bisping fought Henderson and Miller after the show. He lost by KO to Henderson and beat Miller by TKO. Coaching against Cormier, given they’re friends, retired, and in different weight classes, will not result in a fight between the two, contrary to the usual dynamic of TUF.
In terms of the pool of talent recruited for the show, Bisping has been beyond impressed.
“I’ll say this: the talent, and I’m not just saying this as a PR guy or a company guy like every nobhead online says, the talent is so good,” Bisping explained. “It’s crazy. I’m like, what can I show these guys? I mean, obviously, I can tell them how to prepare for a fight, how to get them in shape, and how to mentally prepare. But all of them, like we had one lady that’s like a four-time jiu-jitsu world champion. We had incredible wrestlers from, you know, other parts of the world where they’ve got great wrestling cultures. We had some amazing strikers. These guys came in, and they’ve been doing MMA since they were like six, seven years old. So they can do it all. Yeah, it was great, man. Me and DC we had some fun, you know. I lost my hair through stress, maybe. I got it back, though. Don’t worry.”
