Around five minutes into our chat, I brought up the tricky topic of his eye injury, suffered at the hands – and feet – of Vitor Belfort back in 2013. It left Bisping with a detached retina and while "The Count" was able to return, his 20-20 eyesight did not.
It was an open secret that Bisping's right eye was in a bad way following that fight, but just how bad was it through the remainder of his career?
"Well, look at this," Bisping said as he pulled down his lower right eyelid, shoved his fingers in and pulled out a prosthetic eyeball that covered his real, less-than-healthy eye.
"Does that answer your question?"
Bisping laughed as I half-laughed, while trying not to vomit. But behind his laughter was the story of a situation that would scare the life out of most fighters, let alone us mere bystanders.
"My vision (in my right eye) was pretty much non-existent since 2013," he told me. "I was just about able to scrape past the medicals. It was definitely touch and go. I was always terrified of doing a full training camp, then being turned away by the commission doctor.
"I don't like Vitor Belfort," Bisping said. "The eye thing, that's not why I don't like him. At the end of the day, we know what we sign up for. We step in there as professional athletes to fight, and it's a dangerous business. So that's not why I don't like him.
"I dislike him because he's a bit of a tool. He preaches to everybody about Jesus and being a good person, but he's a scumbag. He was out there cheating, taking a lot of steroids and fighting unfairly and injuring people. He should be ashamed of himself.
"But Vitor Belfort doesn't enter my mindspace unless somebody asks me about him. I certainly don't sit there obsessing about him. I just think, for want of a better word, he's a bit of a tool. I don't have anything too nasty to say about him. I just think he's a bit comical."
And the self-deprecating Brit even jokingly suggested that his ill-advised decision to trash talk Belfort over his beliefs during their pre-fight faceoff might have had something to do with the eye condition he carries with him today.
"I said: 'There is no Jesus,'" Bisping said with a grin. "But maybe there is, because I ended up with a detached retina after that fight. Maybe that was God paying me back."
I'm going to my first ever live UFC show in September
Cerrone vs Gaethje!
The GOAT talk will go around in circles forever, but no one can argue who the one-eyed GOAT will always be.Had no idea Bisping's eye was that fucked up.
I think the original plan was to have Zabit v Ortega as co-main which would've made this card a lot more appealing.
jesus christ
looks like a snoozer of a card until the comain
Usually cards like that end up being good.
too trueWe've been spoiled for much of the year up to this point with banger cards.
"Stipe speaks in cursive."Stipe needs subtitles. I have a hard time understanding him sometimes with his weird mumbling.