Becoming an Ultimate Fighting Championship champion with one eye is a feat only accomplished by Michael Bisping (30-9), and it wasn’t easy for the Brit in any way.
Bisping (30-9), who is consistently ranked in the middleweight division, faced Vitor Belfort in a title eliminator in 2013. Bisping suffered a second-round knockout, suffered a retinal detachment, and eventually lost his vision. The eye damage was not discovered right away and had gotten worse by the time it was diagnosed.
It should be noted that Belfort is known to have used testosterone replacement therapy until 2014, when the Nevada State Athletic Commission banned its approved use.
Despite being advised by doctors to retire, Bisping continued to fight, hiding his eye injury as best he could for fear of losing his career. When Bisping became completely blind in his right eye, passing the pregame vision test was a major challenge for him. Bisping had a scrape for most of the test, but he remained very anxious until the day of the weigh-in, when the state athletic commission took another eye test. Bisping recently revealed that he and head coach Jason Parrillo have devised a code in case doctors cover his good eye. Based on the number of fingers held up by the doctor, Parrillo communicated that number to Bisping using specific gestures such as coughing and yawning.
“You’ll somehow pass the test, but on the day of the weigh-in, even on the commission site, they want to check your eyesight…The competition was the easy part because I was always scared — I didn’t train. You spend this much money on camp, you put this much effort into it, you fly everywhere and you’re fighting to be dragged out the day before the game,” Bisping said recently on Jackson’s podcast. “I mean, the stress was high…the stress was insane. [Jason] Parrillo had a situation. I said, “If [the doctor] Cover your eyes and go [coughs] For one finger, [Yawn] Two people or whatever. We did that a few times. ”
Despite being blind in his right eye, “The Count” defeated Luke Rockhold in an upset knockout on 17 days’ notice in 2016 to claim the title. Bisping retired from active duty in 2018 with a record of 20 wins and 9 losses in the UFC, and is currently building a career in the promotion as a color commentator.
