Ahead of his UFC clash with Luke Rockhold, Michael Bisping’s pride at being a Mixed Martial Artist

CAGE fighter. It is a phrase Michael Bisping detests. Why? Because this is not who the mixed martial artist is. Or was. Ever.

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CAGE fighter. It is a phrase Michael Bisping detests. Why?

Because this is not who he is. Or was. Ever.

“Which isn’t to say I’m out there changing the f ... ing world,’’ he shrugs. “But still, I am a Mixed Martial Artist.”

Which means what exactly?

For Shaun McNeil once said the same thing.

A court heard earlier this month that the tattooed Sydneysider warned four strangers “I’m an MMA fighter” before allegedly throwing the coward punch which now sees him standing trial for murder.

“And yet where is his fight record?’’ asks UFC flyweight Richie Vaculik, a Maroubra local who knows the case well.

“I’ve spoken to every fighter I know, no one has heard of the guy. There are no fight records, nothing.

“People like that ... they’re everything we’re not.”

Vaculik, see, is a Mixed Martial Artist too.

A dedicated athlete who, apart from shedding a fifth of his body weight for fights, also appears regularly at Maroubra PCYC.

Helping dozens of young men who are as lost as he once was.

“But MMA,’’ Vaculik continues, “it saves them.”

It is a truth inherent in Bisping too.

This outspoken Englishman who, long before earning $400,000 as a UFC star, was supplementing meagre fight purses as a plasterer, tiler, postman — even DJ.

No, Bisping isn’t the fastest in his division. Nor the most skilled.

But he is dedicated. Persistent and busy.

At 35, boasting more significant strikes than any other middleweight in history.

Here is a fighter for whom ‘Mixed Martial Artist’ represents a lifetime of sacrifice. Of discipline, knowledge, excellence in ancient arts.

“It’s also sleeping five nights a week in your car outside the gym,’’ he says. “Not able to afford anywhere else.

“And some mornings, having to kick the door of that car out because during another overnight snowstorm, all four have frozen shut.

“But that’s what MMA is — sacrifice.”

Which isn’t to say all UFC fighters are men you’d want your sons to be. But find me a sport, a corporation, even a suburban cul de sac for which this is true.

Understand, too, that if Dylan Andrews played NRL, he would be a back page headline.

The Gold Coast welterweight telling you all how he got out.

How despite growing up the son of drug dealers — despite shifting cannabis plants around just to get in and out of bed — he has saved himself, his parents and “broken the cycle for my own children”.

Which means everything to him.

Dylan Andrews, see, is a Mixed Martial Artist too.

Originally published as Ahead of his UFC clash with Luke Rockhold, Michael Bisping’s pride at being a Mixed Martial Artist