Michael Bisping jumps right back into the fire Saturday at UFC Fight Night
Michael Bisping has not had much free time in 2015.
The UFC middleweight spent much of the first quarter of the year preparing for a featured UFC 186 bout in late April against C.B. Dollaway.
On Saturday, he'll headline a UFC Fight Night card in Glasgow, Scotland, against the surging Thales Leites. In between, Bisping helped his teammate and former TUF winner Kendall Grove prepare for a May fight.
In all, the 36-year-old has not really stopped training for months and months. That can certainly be a grind, but an amped-up Bisping told us recently he's happy with what he signed up for.
"I got right back in after my last fight," he said.
"There has been no rest, basically. After UFC 186, I helped Kendall get ready for his fight, then we got right into camp for this one. I enjoy it, though. This is what I love to do."
Bisping's training home in recent years, Mark Munoz's Reign Training Center, shuttered its doors when Munoz decided to sell it shortly before his final fight, earlier this year. So, like dozens of other fighters, Bisping has had to find other spots to get his work in.
He told us that he's done much of his training for Leites in the private RVCA training facility in Southern California, near his home. He's had help, of course, from coaches and other fighters, but this camp has been of their own devising and structuring as there are no set classes at RVCA.
"I've done a lot of work at RVCA with my coach Jason Parillo," he detailed.
"And, I've worked a lot with [UFC light heavyweight] Patrick Cummins. We've helped each other a lot. He's a fantastic wrestler and so he's helped me a lot, there. And I'm a better striker, so I've helped him a bit there. It's been good for us all."
Bisping's win over Dollaway was a dramatic, come-from-behind victory that got him back on track after losing his previous fight. The win gave "The Count" an emotional boost, and he expects that fighting in Scotland, near his home in England, will do the same.
"It's always a lift to win a fight," he said.
"Getting that win felt great, they always do. Fighting in Scotland is going to be great. It may not be England but it is the United Kingdom. They have the same purple passport that I do (laughs). It's a two-hour drive from me, so it's perfect. The crowd will be in it, I will be in it. We're going to have a great time in there."
