At this point in his career, Michael Bisping – UFC Hall of Famer, commentator, actor – looks to be leading a charmed life. But he knows you don’t want to hear about it.
“Nobody wants to hear about the glamour,” Bisping tells The National. “They want to hear about the stuff that goes on behind the scenes and all the struggles.”
Turns out, he’s had a lifetime of those, too. That’s part of why he thinks the next MMA biopic, after Dwayne Johnson’s The Smashing Machine, should be about his own life. “That’s very arrogant to say, I know,” says Bisping. “But there have been talks – and still are talks of it actually happening. Buddy, I need that cheque, let’s go!”
It’s also why, just before he returns to the commentary table at UFC 321 in Abu Dhabi on October 25, he’s putting on his own live show – Tales from the Octagon – as a storytelling dinner at W Abu Dhabi hotel on Yas Island. The British athlete and commentator promises it will be “gritty, real and raw”, exactly what you’d expect from a man with a prosthetic eye who once faked his way through medicals by memorising the letters on the eye chart before the doctor walked into the room.
Few places have showcased Bisping’s second act quite like Abu Dhabi. The emirate has become the UFC’s global stage, and Bisping one of its most familiar voices – analysing title fights, hosting fan events and keeping his place at the heart of a sport that has grown up alongside him.
“The passion the fans have out there is incredible,” he says. “They’ve been hosting events since 2009 – Anderson Silva versus Demian Maia, BJ Penn against Frankie Edgar – and it’s only grown.”
Each trip to the emirate leaves the same impression. “It’s absolutely beautiful. The people are great, and the fights are phenomenal. What more do you want?”
The UFC 321 main event looks set to continue that trend. The card, headlined by Britain’s reigning heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall and France’s Ciryl Gane, is among the year’s most anticipated.
For Bisping, who once carried British MMA on his own shoulders, Aspinall represents everything that’s changed since then – a homegrown champion with world-class talent and composure. Watching him move, Bisping recently compared him to perhaps the most famous heavyweight fighter in history.
“Tom’s a big guy, but he’s also very light on his feet,” Bisping says. “The majority of heavyweights are slower, plodding types. Muhammad Ali floated like a butterfly, stung like a bee – he was fast, he moved around the place.
“It’s not the showboating or the talking,” he adds. “It’s his athletic ability – the way he moves for such a big man. And, of course, he’s also very good. He may go down as the greatest of all time.”
As ever, Bisping can’t help but offer a suggestion for Aspinall’s fight strategy against Gane.
“Tom could go out there and grapple, he could stand and strike – he can choose his own poison,” he says. “But he’s clever. If he’s smart, he’ll take the easiest path and wrestle Gane, like Jon Jones did. Standing with Gane is risky.”
Away from the Octagon, Bisping has found another outlet for that discipline and precision. His move into acting, he says, happened by accident.
“There used to be a brand called Tapout that did clothing for UFC,” he says. “They made so much money they didn’t know what to do with it, so they started making movies. In 2009, I got offered a role – one of the main characters. I’d never acted, never even thought about it. But I accepted, worked with an acting coach, and at the end the director said: ‘You know what, you did a really good job. You might want to think more about this.’”
That role led to others, including a stint on long-running British soap Hollyoaks. When Bisping later moved to Los Angeles for training, he found himself close enough to Hollywood to take it seriously. “I found an agent, and slowly but surely things progressed,” he says. “I’ve got two lead roles coming out later this year – four movies in total, which is kind of unbelievable.”
He still refuses to call himself an actor. “I’m a fighter who does a little bit of acting,” he says. “I’m a little bit of this, a little bit of that. First and foremost, I’m a UFC commentator and Hall of Famer. But if I can do more acting, great. I just take it with a pinch of salt, I never get too carried away.”
Among the highlights was a brief but memorable appearance in David Lynch’s Twin Peaks. “I was a big fan,” Bisping says. “When I went for the audition, they wouldn’t tell us what it was for – it was all very hush-hush. They were looking for interesting-looking people, and obviously my eye was all butchered and I had the cauliflower ears. So they said: ‘You’ve got a very interesting look.' Which I think is code for: ‘You look like you’ve been through some stuff.’
“I got the part and then found out it was Twin Peaks and it was David Lynch. He was an absolute legend – so nice and warm. I only had a small part, but when I finished he gave me a round of applause. I’ll always remember that.”
His encounter with Lynch also left him with a story that’s pure Bisping – funny, impatient, a little surreal.
“I had to leave to get to the UFC to work an event,” he says. “We’d finished filming and I was trying to go, but the producers said: ‘You can’t leave until David says you can.’ I told them: ‘Well, go ask him – I’ve got to go to the airport, I’ve got a plane to catch.’
“They said: ‘Oh, no, he’s in his trailer, meditating.’ I asked, ‘How long’s he going to be?’. And they said: ‘We don’t know – could be 15 minutes, could be three hours.’”
Fortunately, he was allowed to be on his way 10 minutes later, but Bisping laughs at the memory, still amused by the absurdity of it. The story seems to capture how he’s learnt to navigate the quiet between fights – the stillness that once drove him up the wall. “I guess I’ve found a way to channel that energy,” he says.
As a commentator, that discipline shows in his delivery. “When I first moved to America, my accent and the speed I speak at weren’t conducive to Americans understanding how I talk,” he says. “At Fox Sports, one of the producers told me: ‘We love the energy, but you speak so fast and don’t pronounce your words fully.’ So I had to learn how to talk properly – work with a dialect coach and a speech therapist.”
The change paid off. Bisping's voice is now one of the sport’s most recognisable, bridging audiences from Manchester to Las Vegas to Abu Dhabi. “I still get a lot of stick off English fans,” he says. “They’ll say: ‘Why are you talking like an American?’ I tell them: ‘Mate, I need to keep my job.’”
These days, Bisping moves between film sets and commentary booths with the same intensity that once defined him inside the cage. He may joke about cheques and jet lag, but behind the laughter is the same drive that carried him from anonymity to the Hall of Fame.
“Would I like to still compete a little bit? Yeah, I guess,” he says. “But I’ve also had a tremendous amount of injuries over the years, so it’s probably best that I don’t.”
He grins. “I’ve still got it, though.”
Michael Bisping's Tales from the Octagon is at W Abu Dhabi - Yas Island on October 23; doors open at 6.30pm; tickets are from Dh995
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Avatar: Fire and Ash
Director: James Cameron
Starring: Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, Zoe Saldana
Rating: 4.5/5
The President's Cake
Director: Hasan Hadi
Starring: Baneen Ahmad Nayyef, Waheed Thabet Khreibat, Sajad Mohamad Qasem
Rating: 4/5
UAE v Gibraltar
What: International friendly
When: 7pm kick off
Where: Rugby Park, Dubai Sports City
Admission: Free
Online: The match will be broadcast live on Dubai Exiles’ Facebook page
UAE squad: Lucas Waddington (Dubai Exiles), Gio Fourie (Exiles), Craig Nutt (Abu Dhabi Harlequins), Phil Brady (Harlequins), Daniel Perry (Dubai Hurricanes), Esekaia Dranibota (Harlequins), Matt Mills (Exiles), Jaen Botes (Exiles), Kristian Stinson (Exiles), Murray Reason (Abu Dhabi Saracens), Dave Knight (Hurricanes), Ross Samson (Jebel Ali Dragons), DuRandt Gerber (Exiles), Saki Naisau (Dragons), Andrew Powell (Hurricanes), Emosi Vacanau (Harlequins), Niko Volavola (Dragons), Matt Richards (Dragons), Luke Stevenson (Harlequins), Josh Ives (Dubai Sports City Eagles), Sean Stevens (Saracens), Thinus Steyn (Exiles)
White hydrogen: Naturally occurring hydrogen
Chromite: Hard, metallic mineral containing iron oxide and chromium oxide
Ultramafic rocks: Dark-coloured rocks rich in magnesium or iron with very low silica content
Ophiolite: A section of the earth’s crust, which is oceanic in nature that has since been uplifted and exposed on land
Olivine: A commonly occurring magnesium iron silicate mineral that derives its name for its olive-green yellow-green colour
The specs
- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
- Power: 640hp
- Torque: 760nm
- On sale: 2026
- Price: Not announced yet
Electoral College Victory
Trump has so far secured 295 Electoral College votes, according to the Associated Press, exceeding the 270 needed to win. Only Nevada and Arizona remain to be called, and both swing states are leaning Republican. Trump swept all five remaining swing states, North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, sealing his path to victory and giving him a strong mandate.
Popular Vote Tally
The count is ongoing, but Trump currently leads with nearly 51 per cent of the popular vote to Harris’s 47.6 per cent. Trump has over 72.2 million votes, while Harris trails with approximately 67.4 million.
Sukuk explained
Sukuk are Sharia-compliant financial certificates issued by governments, corporates and other entities. While as an asset class they resemble conventional bonds, there are some significant differences. As interest is prohibited under Sharia, sukuk must contain an underlying transaction, for example a leaseback agreement, and the income that is paid to investors is generated by the underlying asset. Investors must also be prepared to share in both the profits and losses of an enterprise. Nevertheless, sukuk are similar to conventional bonds in that they provide regular payments, and are considered less risky than equities. Most investors would not buy sukuk directly due to high minimum subscriptions, but invest via funds.
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The specs
Engine: 6.2-litre supercharged V8
Power: 712hp at 6,100rpm
Torque: 881Nm at 4,800rpm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 19.6 l/100km
Price: Dh380,000
On sale: now
Quick pearls of wisdom
Focus on gratitude: And do so deeply, he says. “Think of one to three things a day that you’re grateful for. It needs to be specific, too, don’t just say ‘air.’ Really think about it. If you’re grateful for, say, what your parents have done for you, that will motivate you to do more for the world.”
Know how to fight: Shetty married his wife, Radhi, three years ago (he met her in a meditation class before he went off and became a monk). He says they’ve had to learn to respect each other’s “fighting styles” – he’s a talk it-out-immediately person, while she needs space to think. “When you’re having an argument, remember, it’s not you against each other. It’s both of you against the problem. When you win, they lose. If you’re on a team you have to win together.”
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Mamo Year it started: 2019 Founders: Imad Gharazeddine, Asim Janjua Based: Dubai, UAE Number of employees: 28 Sector: Financial services Investment: $9.5m Funding stage: Pre-Series A Investors: Global Ventures, GFC, 4DX Ventures, AlRajhi Partners, Olive Tree Capital, and prominent Silicon Valley investors. War 2
Director: Ayan Mukerji
Stars: Hrithik Roshan, NTR, Kiara Advani, Ashutosh Rana
Rating: 2/5
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Brief scoreline:
Manchester United 1
Mata 11'
Chelsea 1
Alonso 43'
Turkish Ladies
Various artists, Sony Music Turkey
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Getting there
Flydubai flies direct from Dubai to Tbilisi from Dh1,025 return including taxes
Specs
Engine: Dual-motor all-wheel-drive electric
Range: Up to 610km
Power: 905hp
Torque: 985Nm
Price: From Dh439,000
Available: Now
What can victims do?
Always use only regulated platforms
Stop all transactions and communication on suspicion
Save all evidence (screenshots, chat logs, transaction IDs)
Report to local authorities
Warn others to prevent further harm
Courtesy: Crystal Intelligence
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
