Former UFC middleweight champion has an opponent in mind for his retirement fight.

Bisping has gone on record by stating that he would like to have his final fight in London. Ironically, the promotion is slated to return to England on March 17 for UFC Fight Night 127 at The O2 Arena.

However, when tickets went on sale for the event, Bisping noted on his official Twitter account that he would not be fighting at the event.

This leads us to former UFC light heavyweight champion Lyoto “The Dragon” Machida calling out Bisping for a fight after his bout against rising prospect Eryk Anders via split decision at UFC Fight Night 125 from Arena Guilherme Paraense in Belem, Brazil back on February 3, 2018.

Bisping recently spoke about the fight and also addressed Machida’s call out during a recent edition of his Believe You Me podcast (transcript courtesy of MMA Fighting):

“I’ve no problem with the decision,” Bisping said. “What I do have a problem with is what Machida said afterwards. I’m only joking, I don’t really have a problem with it. He called me out, once again.

“He just said we were supposed to fight a couple of times over the years and that it hadn’t happened and that basically he had a lot of respect for me. And I have a lot of respect for Machida, I really do.

As I said on Saturday, he’s one of the true, last martial arts specialist and one of the true martial artists that competes in the Octagon, so I have respect for him. Of course, there was the whole steroid issue, so I don’t want to rehash Saturday’s show, but there’s always going to be an asterisk over him.”

“The Rashad fight we spoke about and it didn’t materialize. The Machida fight is something as well that could potentially serve as my last fight. [It’s] very similar to Rashad in many ways: former champion, had a long career, getting to the final stages of his career, somebody that I haven’t fought and have a lot of respect for, that’s had a great career. So, it ticks all the boxes from that standpoint and that’s about it.”

Bisping lost in the main event of the UFC 217 PPV (pay-per-view) event on November 4th in New York at Madison Square Garden to former UFC welterweight champion and current middleweight champion Georges St-Pierre by submission.

However, he is continuing with his pro-MMA career. He then lost to Kelvin Gastelum UFC Fight Night 122.

“As of right now I’ve got to speak to the UFC and figure out what’s going on for myself so I’m not considering opponents or who they are. I’ve got to speak with Dana and the UFC guys and figure out what’s next and what’s happening in life.

“God bless Machida. Thanks for the call out and we will see what the future holds.”