Michael Bisping paid quite the price for being a prizefighter.
Bisping is a UFC Hall of Famer who captured the UFC middleweight title before his career came to a close. He’s also called a pioneer for mixed martial arts in Europe. While “The Count” has his accolades, he didn’t walk away from combat sports unscathed.
Back in Jan. 2013, Bisping suffered a detached retina in his right eye following a TKO loss to Vitor Belfort. “The Count” continued to have problems with it throughout his career, but still managed to go 7-4 following the injury and win the middleweight title.
During a new edition of his Believe You Me podcast, Bisping popped out his prosthetic eye (via Borrachinha Depot).
Bisping noted that he used to wear sunglasses to prevent the athletic commissions from cancelling his bouts. In the past, Bisping told MMAJunkie that he barely got past his medical tests.
“My vision (in my right eye) was pretty much non-existent since 2013,” he told me. “I was just about able to scrape past the medicals. It was definitely touch and go. I was always terrified of doing a full training camp, then being turned away by the commission doctor.
“It was difficult. To pass the medical test, you’ve got to have 20-200 vision, which is classed as clinically blind anyway, so it’s not very good – it’s not a very hard mark to pass. Some days I could, some days I couldn’t. But fortunately, I was just able to scrape by.
“People always say: ‘How did you fight with only one eye?’ And I always say: ‘With great (expletive) difficulty!’”
