Michael Bisping has gone into detail on the mental turmoil he suffered ahead of medical tests in the UFC, with the warrior concerned his eye issues could prevent him from fighting.
With this in mind, he constructed a plan to try and limit this possibility.
Michael Bisping explains the code Jason Parillo and he came up with to try and pass eye tests
Throughout his career, Michael Bisping cemented his place as one of the grittiest competitors of all time, with a willingness to do whatever it took to secure the victory.
But not only was he respected for getting back up after being knocked down, and wiping away the blood in order to continue trading huge shots, but for the fact that he won the UFC middleweight title with only one eye.
When a Vitor Belfort head kick connected, the Englishman’s retina detached, leaving him without any vision in his right eye.
This had a significant impact on ‘The Count’, who was constantly in a state of fear that the medical experts wouldn’t let him fight.
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During an episode of the JAXXON Podcast, he said: “Even on sight, the commission, on the day of the weigh-ins, they want to check your vision. I was always terrified, because I didn’t have this (fake eye) then, that was only a few years ago.
“My eye looked terrible; it looks even worse now. It looked a little bit better back then, but you could clearly see when you looked at the eye that it wasn’t healthy.
“With the doctors, I would think all they got to do is cover that eye and say, ‘How many fingers’? And then I’m f***ed.
“So, every training camp, the fight was the easy part, because I was always terrified of spending all this money on a training camp, I’m putting all this effort into it, I’m going to fly to wherever it is, and then day before, I’m going to get pulled from the fight, so the stress was major.
“Then, when I’d get past the weigh-ins, it was a relief. Now, I know I can fight, now I’m happy. All I’ve got to do is go out and fight.
“Me and Jason Parillo had a thing. If he covers up the eye, ‘Cough for one finger, yawn for two fingers’. To be honest, they never even did it. They just went, ‘Can you see out of that eye’? I’d go, ‘Yeah’. And then they’d say, ‘Ok’.”
Michael Bisping and Luke Rockhold finally reveal what happened in their spar
During the podcast, Bisping sat alongside his old rival Luke Rockhold, with the pair getting on considerably better than they have in years gone by.
The pair shared two high-profile bouts, with the American winning the first via submission, before his arch-nemesis got his own back by rendering him unconscious with a left hook to claim the 185-pound throne.
But before they ever shared the octagon, they first engaged in a heated spar, with the icons now explaining what really went down that day.
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