FaceTime and lidocaine: Michael Bisping recounts backstage dilemma before GSP fight

LONDON – Michael Bisping’s run as UFC middleweight champion ended at the hands of Georges St-Pierre at UFC 217 at Madison Square Garden. Unsurprisingly, the newly inducted UFC Hall of Famer still believes he has what it takes to beat the Canadian legend.

Speaking with MMA Junkie during his promotional tour for his autobiography, Quitters Never Win, Bisping revealed that if there was one fight he’d love to run back, it’s that fight with St-Pierre.

When asked the if he could go back and have a do-over fight with any of his past opponents, with the guarantee that both men would be 100 percent fit and healthy before and after the contest, Bisping didn’t hesitate.

“Well, I know for a fact I could wipe the floor with Georges St-Pierre, so I’d like to do that one again,” Bisping said, definitively. “I tore my ribs a week before that fight; it’s all in the book. I didn’t break them. I tore the cartilage. I couldn’t move very well.”

Wanting to run back the fight that saw him lose his title while he fought injured certainly makes sense. But that wasn’t close to being the end of the story. Bisping then went on to share an incredible tale of what happened – and didn’t happen – backstage ahead of what proved to be his final title defense.

“I sneaked in a needle full of lidocaine, and I was going to, in the toilets, inject myself with lidocaine into the rib, which would numb the rib so I wouldn’t have any pain,” Bisping revealed.

“Because it’s not a banned substance from USADA, I could have gone to the commission and said, ‘Hey, I want to inject myself with lidocaine.’ That wouldn’t have been the issue. But the fact that I had an injury, they might have pulled me from the fight.

“But then my doctor said, ‘You’ve got to be careful, because if you inject yourself with lidocaine in the rib and you get it slightly wrong, you could puncture your lung and die.’ So I had it all in the bag, and I was going to FaceTime my doctor, on the toilet while the commission members were outside, and he was going to talk me through injecting myself with lidocaine.

“But when I got there I’m like, ‘This is too much, bollocks to it.’ So I just went out there and fought injured. Everyone was saying, ‘You weren’t moving too well.’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah, no (expletive)!’ My ribs were seriously messed up!”

Bisping lasted nearly 15 minutes before submitting to a St-Pierre rear-naked choke at the 4:23 mark of Round 3.