Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
Michael Bisping pops out his prosthetic eye during a live broadcast of Believe You Me.
Michael Bisping is a true warrior.
The retired UFC Hall of Famer has been blind in one eye for the better part of six years, but that didn’t stop ‘The Count’ from KO’ing Luke Rockhold to capture the middleweight title at UFC 199.
Vitor Belfort detached Bisping’s retina with a head kick back in 2013, and the Brit has been virtually blind in his right eye ever since. In fact, not long after detaching his retina, Bisping lost all vision in his eye and had been fighting at a major disadvantage for the latter half of his career.
To demonstrate just how gruesome of an injury he suffered at the hands of Belfort, Bisping popped out his prosthetic eye during a live broadcast of Believe You Me, his long-running podcast with co-host Luis Gomez.
Check out the video footage below, but be warned, viewer discretion is advised.
Holy shit ! I never knew Bisping only had one eye. I thought it was just badly injured and he was almost blind. This is even crazier how the hell fought he like that and got cleared by any permission . He’s a savage and madman. pic.twitter.com/U7rawdJRTD
— Dominik (@Pommesbudenpate) October 3, 2019
Bisping, who was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame earlier this year, opened up on the severity of his condition in an interview with MMA Junkie.
“My vision (in my right eye) was pretty much non-existent since 2013,” he said. “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!’”