For the latter part of Michael Bisping’s UFC Hall of Fame career it was an open secret that he had trouble seeing out of his right eye following a series of surgeries to repair a detached retina he suffered in a fight with Vitor Belfort six years ago — but perhaps few of us thought it was this bad.
On a recent episode the former UFC middleweight champion’s Believe You Me podcast, Bisping showed co-host Luis Gomez the full extent of the injury he suffered, and the various attempts to correct it, by removing a protective false layer which covers his right eye. The effect of the eyepiece is cosmetic and if it appears normal while he is wearing it, something certainly seems awry when he’s not.
Michael Bisping is a legend. pic.twitter.com/fg1TG4SwnO
— Borrachinha Depot (@FullContactMTWF) October 3, 2019
“By the way, I wore my dark glasses as I said to hide from the commission. Get a load of this, check this out.” Bisping says before removing the false eye. “That’s why I used to wear sunglasses, baby boy.”
The injury has its genesis from a January 2013 bout between Bisping and Belfort which the latter won by second round knockout. Bisping then had several surgeries performed to correct an issue with his eye caused by Belfort high kick, including have the eyeball completely removed according to reports.
It was thought at one point that Bisping may have to retire because of the incident but he managed to find a workaround to the situation and fought a further 11 times, winning the UFC’s 185-pound title in the process before losing it to Georges St-Pierre at UFC 217 in November 2017. He would fight one more time before retiring, suffering a left-hook knockout on what would be his ‘blind side’ a month later in China. He was inducted to the UFC Hall of Fame in July of this year.
“Vitor Belfort is the type of person, I wouldn’t piss on him if he was on fire,” Bisping said to MMA Fighting of Belfort in 2018.
“I have no respect for that guy. Honestly, I don’t want to share an Octagon with him. I don’t want to be associated with him whatsoever. I think he’s the biggest hypocrite in the world. He’s one of the biggest cheaters in the world. He’s a total hypocrite. He talks about Jesus and things like that but he’s not a very good person, and he is one of the most prolific cheaters in this sport. And this is a sport for men, this is about martial arts, it’s about testing yourself at the highest level. It’s not who’s got the best doctor and who can take the best steroids. So, once again, I wouldn’t piss on him if he was on fire.”
