Could we have seen the end of Michael Bisping’s fighting career?

While the former middleweight champion had made no secret that his time in the sport was coming to an end, particularly on the back of two heavy defeats to Georges St-Pierre and Kelvin Gastelum, it had been speculated that Bisping would have a final swan song at the upcoming UFC London on March 17.

Reports had emerged that the MMA promotion were eyeing up a potential contest between Bisping and former light heavyweight champion Rashad Evans, but as the tickets for the event are prepared to go on sale, Bisping himself took to his social media to alert fans that if they were buying tickets to see him, they’d be disappointed.

Don't buy tickets to see me fight in London. I'm not fighting. Just spoke with ufc.

— michael (@bisping) January 30, 2018

“Don’t buy tickets to see me fight in London,” Bisping wrote. “I’m not fighting. Just spoke with UFC.”

What that means for the Brit is uncertain. Short of a retirement fight in his home country — something Bisping has made clear he’s longed to have throughout his career — there isn’t much on the horizon that makes much sense. Having finally won the title that eluded him for years in 2016, Bisping appears to have reached the end of his run as an active competitor.

“I have a bad eye. I have a bad eye and my wife doesn’t want me to continue fighting, and my manager doesn’t want me to continue fighting,” Bisping said recently on his podcast Believe You Me. “I can see out of that eye but not as well as I used to, and I’m still a young man so it’s kind of the reason I may hang the gloves up. My wife and manager and friends and people close to me say, ‘Mike, what do you want to do that for? You’ve done it. You’ve had the belt.’ I’ve done it. I’ve done what I set out to achieve.”