Michael Bisping pushed Chael Sonnen all the way but narrowly lost the biggest fight of his life to a controversial judges’ decision.

The UFC fighter from Clitheroe would have received a shot at Anderson Silva’s middleweight title had he won in front of 18,000 spectators in Chicago and 4.5million viewers on American network television.

Bisping, 32, controlled much of the action on the feet and landed some powerful shots against Sonnen, one of mixed martial art’s biggest stars.

But wrestler Sonnen scored with takedowns in each round, particularly in the third.

Judges scored the fight 29-28, 29-28 and 30-27. UFC president Dana White, who thought Bisping won the fight, said the judge who awarded it 30-27 to Sonnen ‘should never be allowed to watch a fight again’.

“There is no way on earth that was 30-27 and that judge needs to have a serious think about his career options,” Bisping said.

“I think I won rounds one and two. That seems to be the general consensus that I won the fight.

“It the biggest cliché – don’t let it go to the judges, but I did that.”

Sonnen, 34, also feared he may have lost. “The only round I knew I had was the third,” he said. “I thought he might have got the first two. Michael Bisping hit me so hard in the first round I didn’t know what day it was.

“I was never in a position I was comfortable.”

Bisping is now 23-4 in his career with defeats coming whenever he has stepped up to face an elite opponent.

However most pundits feel the Brit, who had been on a four-fight winning streak, is getting better with each bout in terms of techniques, fitness and attitude.

And Bisping himself still feels he will win a UFC title.

“I am going nowhere,” he said. “I am only getting better. This is not the last you will see of me and I will be fighting for the title and I will win it.”