Michael Bisping, a former UFC champion, was known for competing with one eye during the latter half of his career. Bisping had been in the UFC for seven years when he met former UFC champion, Vitor Belfort, in January of 2013. Belfort had a therapeutic use exemption for TRT and was looking visibly juicy.
Belfort connected with a head kick that dropped Bisping, and the ground and pound won him the bout via knockout. The bigger issue was with Bisping, as he had a detached retina as a result of the knockout. The injury wasn’t noticed by Bisping or doctors until months later, which played into the severity of the injury.
Bisping’s vision in his right eye was almost non-existent since 2013, and he was just about able to scrape past the medicals. It wasn’t easy for Bisping, and some days he could, and some days he couldn’t pass the medical test.
But UFC recently signed another prospect who is visually impaired – Sharaputdin Magomedov.
He described horrific surgery and said that his eye was taken out of its socket and that even anesthesia did not work.
“Before the operation, I was mainly afraid of an injection in the eye. I watched this video. Very unpleasant. I thought that was the most boring thing ever. And there were such operations when an injection in the eye had to be made, where it was removed, one might say.”
Magomedov talked about anesthesia:
“At this time, local anesthesia is administered, but you feel everything,”
Regarding his return to MMA, he said that the doctor said:
“The worst thing that can happen to your eye has already happened. Therefore, you can practice.”
Joe Rogan recently addressed this signing during the live watch episode of his podcast dedicated to UFC 284.
“I don’t know if they’re letting him do it just because Bisping did it. But this dude is… he’s got a dead eye. ” – Rogan remarked.
“It didn’t used to be like that. He lost it in a fight.” – Rogan added.
“So if it’s dead, it’s completely dead on. So if you go and watch his, his fights like he’s a savage, really good striker, f***ing super dangerous striker. But I believe he got signed to the UFC.”
Rogan questioned: “Is he signed to the UFC? Okay, but how does that work? I don’t know. This is my question.”