Bisping has always seemed to invite fan and crowd participation for energy, motivation or something else, before and during fights. And he's always gotten a reaction, positive or negative.
Though he admits to enjoying fan support when he's gotten it, Bisping says he's never obsessed about how he'd be received, either in his younger, more angry days, or now, as a fighter more at peace with himself and his life.
"It is not something that I lose sleep on, that's for sure," he says.
"Let's be honest, I don't want to walk out to boos. I always want to be cheered, like anyone, and I've been very lucky over the years to have a lot of support. Coming to America, I'm always the away guy and so people thought their guy had to take me out and they boo. The same as when I've fought in England and Americans or whoever came in and they got booed. But generally, fans have been very accepting of me. I want to be liked, I just haven't lost sleep over it."
Bisping next draws an interesting distinction, unprompted. It seems as though many other public personalities who are as outspoken and brazen as Bisping find solace in the idea that, well, at least they are being themselves. At least they are being "real."
The implication, of course, is that authenticity can excuse boorish behavior.
Bisping doesn't buy it, insisting that he owns whatever he's done or said wrong and isn't hiding behind an excuse of personality.
"I hate the expression, 'I'm not fake,'" he says.
"When people say that they mean, 'I can be a dick all I want because that's the real me.' You can be a dick and be fake, or you can be real and be good to people as well. People can say Jon Jones acts fake, and he does, but he can still be a dick. I can be a dick as well, but I don't want to be, and there isn't an excuse for it. I mean, at the end of the day, I step into a cage and try to knock people out for a living. People enjoy watching me fight. I will have been in the co-main or main event for over 20 fights, in Montreal. So, it isn't all about being nice, either."
True enough, it really isn't. More often than not, it's about winning.
Bisping has done plenty of that and, at 36-years-old, he says he plans to do plenty more. Though he is no longer an angry young man, one thing has not changed for the maturing Bisping.
That is, the one thing that still drives the middleweight each and every day is the goal of one day becoming a world champion. "That is still what drives me," he explains.
"Financially, I've done very well doing what I do. I've got plenty of money in the bank. I've got gigs with FOX doing analyst work, media work. The UFC has been very kind to me. Ultimately, however, I want to be world champion. I have to achieve that to validate my entire career."
Michael Bisping battles Cung Le in Macau
