Michael Bisping says that he is delighted that his former opponent Matt Hamill can hear for the first time in 41 years.

Bisping and Hamill infamously clashed on the third season of ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ close to 20 years ago, with their rivalry coming to a head in a fiercely-contested battle at UFC 75 in London in 2007 — with Bisping winning a controversial split decision over the American wrestler.

Hamill’s career, though, was all the more remarkable given that Hamill had been deaf for the vast majority of his life. Recently, he revealed that due to a new hearing aid he was able to hear again for the first time in four decades and Bisping has said that he is thrilled for his former opponent.

“I was just so happy for the guy,” Bisping said, via MMA Fighting. “I mean, yes, on the show we had kind of a tumultuous relationship, we just had a competitive rivalry. I was young, I looked at Matt Hamill as the the only guy that could potentially beat me and because of that, I’m a competitor, and I was young and I was immature. He had his ways and I had my ways and we kind of clashed a little bit. I don’t know if that was all in my head or not but that was a long, long time ago.

“We fought. It was a very close fight. It was 2007, almost 20 years ago, but since then I’ve wished him nothing but the best,” Bisping added. “And then when I heard that… and we’ve shared a few tweets back and forth over the years, all nice and polite. When I heard that, I was just overjoyed.”

Bisping, of course, achieved a lot in his career with a disability of his own — a non-functional right eye which he lost vision in due to an injury sustained in a fight with Vitor Belfort. And he said that if there are any developments in technology that could restore his sight, someone should get in touch.

“It’s incredible what technology is doing these days,” Bisping said. “I know there’s talks about new eyes and things like that, you never know. Elon Musk, shoot me one of those new eyes and I’ll be back in the octagon before you know it.”