A professional competitor from to , he held the UFC middleweight title , the Cage Rage light heavyweight title , and won the light heavyweight tournament of The Ultimate Fighter 3. In , he became legally blind in his right eye after fighting Vitor Belfort , in which a fight-ending head kick had left Bisping with a detached retina.
After his knockout loss to Kelvin Gastelum three weeks later, Bisping retired from the sport. Bisping was born on a British military base in Nicosia , Cyprus. Many members of the noble families were pursued and executed by Soviet Red Army during World War II , including Andrew's father, Jan, [ 13 ] who was named after his own grandfather Andrew's father , served in the British Army.
At the age of 18, Bisping decided to abandon his martial arts training "to pursue real-life". Bisping enjoyed a short but successful kickboxing career, winning the North West Area title and later the Pro British light heavyweight kickboxing title.
After again briefly quitting competition in , Bisping returned to kickboxing to take the Pro British light heavyweight title for a second time. Soon after winning his second kickboxing title, he was forced to abandon his full-time training for a "real job". In addition to working at factories, slaughterhouses, and demolition companies, he was also an upholsterer, postman, tiler, plasterer, and salesman.
In his third MMA match, Bisping was scheduled to face the experienced Renato Sobral at Cage Rage 7 but his opponent pulled out ten days before the event. Instead, Bisping defeated Mark Epstein by technical knockout and became the Cage Rage light heavyweight champion. Bisping went on to defend his championship title in a rematch against Epstein at Cage Rage 9 in a knockout victory that solidified Bisping as one of the top light heavyweight fighters in England.
