UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre has returned to training after recovering from an eye injury suffered at UFC 129. The Canadian, who defeated Jake Shields via unanimous decision in Toronto, was poked in the left eye and suffered hyphema — bleeding in the eye — that required prescription drops, a temporary eye patch and rest to make a full recovery.
Bruno Fernandes, who is one of St-Pierre’s jiu-jitsu coaches as well as a doctor of ophthalmology in Montreal, told MMA Fighting that St-Pierre’s vision was drastically compromised by the injury, which reduced his capability of seeing out of his left eye to about 10 percent.
“We don’t really measure vision in terms of percentage but he lost field of vision, clarity and depth perception,” Fernandes said. “When you have hyphema, it is like looking through a really dirty window. Your vision is significantly impaired, and it is amazing he was even able to fight with such a degree of impairment.”