Michael Bisping narrates inspiring story from Luke Rockhold rematch at UFC 199

Former UFC Middleweight Champion Michael Bisping is one of the toughest men to have graced the sport of MMA and his latest story etches that fact in stone.

Bisping, who is now retired, works as a commentator and analyst with the UFC and while appearing on the UFC Unfiltered podcast and chatting to fellow UFC Hall of Famer Matt Serra, he revealed that heading into his rematch against Luke Rockhold at UFC 199, he suffered an injury that jeopardized his participation in the fight. Bisping disclosed how he fought through the pain and managed to overcome the impossible odds in that fight.

“The fight with Rockhold, a few days before I flew out to Australia I got headbutted in training and I had stitches in my eye. I have a fake eye in there now so it doesn’t work. But my good eye, I had stitches all on the top of the eye and they actually took the stitches out as I got to the arena because they said, ‘Mike you can’t fight with stitches in your eye.’ So they took the stitches out and at the start of that fight against Rockhold, he headbutts me and opens the cut and I couldn’t see a thing. I would wipe the blood like this, and then I could kind of see for a second, and then the blood would run into my eye again so I would wipe it again and then while I was doing that, boom, I got head kicked."

"But I couldn’t say that at the time because I still wanted to carry on fighting, you know what I mean? So when I got my opportunity for a rematch, even on two weeks’ notice, of course I took it because I knew I could beat that guy.”

Bisping knocked Rockhold out in the first round of that fight, becoming the UFC Middleweight Champion and establishing himself as one of the greatest Middleweights of all time.