Former UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping has revealed he almost lost the sight in both his eyes after fighting Kelvin Gastelum.
The now-retired fighter accepted a late notice fight against Gastelum off the back of his 185lb title fight defeat against Georges St Pierre in 2017. Things didn’t go well for Bisping who was cracked early and suffered his second defeat in just a few weeks which brought an end to his illustrious career.
The Brit had a well-documented issue with one of his eyes for the majority of his career. So, when the vision in his good eye started to deteriorate after his loss to Gastelum things got scary, Bisping told Submission Radio.
“I fight Georges St. Pierre, I lose that fight, and he knew I was blind in one eye, he targeted it. Then, I fly to Shanghai, couple of weeks later I fight Kelvin Gastelum, I get cracked. I think I’ve had a good run and that was that. And then we go to an afterparty afterwards and I’m sitting there in this club, and every time I look this way, I get a flash of light. I was like, what was that? So I look again, another flash of light. And every time I look to the left, I get a flash of light. And I started panicking. And I was like, holy shit, I don’t believe this, I’ve got a detached retina in my good eye. And I started (getting) emotional, in a night club. I’ve had a couple of drinks, but I’m like, fuck, I’m thinking I’m gonna go blind. Cause if they could have fixed the eye, it’s gonna be a few weeks while the surgery repairs, so I’m gonna be blind at least for a little bit, and that’s a terrifying thought to have, to actually think you’ll go blind.
“So, I left this night club cause I don’t want to be sitting there and bloody tears running down my face and people thinking, oh, look at this soft cunt, he’s crying because he lost a fight. I’m like, no, I think I’m gonna go blind. So, I leave the club and I go back to my hotel, and a few of my mates came back a little while after to see if I was okay. Anyway, we have a good drink – you know, a very, very good drink. So, by the time I’ve sobered up, I’ve forgotten all about my eye at this point. I got to the airport. I fall asleep on the plane. It’s a long flight back to LA. And I wake up half way through and I look to my left, and there’s that flashing light. So, when I land, I got to my eye doctor straight away. He’s like, yeah, you need to go see someone.
“I go in there. And whenever I’m uncomfortable, I always use humour as kind of like a mask. So, I go in to see the doc and I say, listen, doc, I think I’ve got a detached retina in my good eye. And he said, alright, well, let’s take a look, I’m gonna put some drops in you’re not gonna be able to see for a while. And I make a joke, I say, oh well, I guess I better get used to this view, ey? And he says, calm down, we’re not there just yet. And I was like, we’re not fucking there just yet? Jesus Christ. I was freaking out. And anyway, turns out I had a vitreous detachment. So anyway, I was like, well, that’s it, the game is up, I don’t want to go blind.”
How did Michael Bisping manage to compete so long with just one eye?