Michael Bisping ‘Devastated’ Over Near Career Ending Eye Injury

“(I’m) devastated. I trained so hard for this fight. And not only that, it’s hard for the people of Manchester and the people of the U.K. to part ways with their hard-earned money to buy a ticket, so I apologize to all the fans and everybody who bought a ticket. I was fearing the worst. I was fearing that they would say a detached retina, and possibly a career ending injury. So the stubborn old fool inside of me said, ‘I’ll do it later, I’ll do it later.’ When the injury regressed to where I literally couldn’t see my hand in front of my face, that’s when I thought, okay, that is enough. It was last Tuesday. Everything was fine, and then I walked into the cage to do some wrestling drills. When I walked in, the light kind of went a little strange. That’s when I first noticed something.”

“After that, I had to go to L.A. to do some work with Jon Anik and Mark Munoz on Inside the Octagon. We were filming a thing obviously to promote the fight. So I drove out there, and progressively throughout the day the eye was getting worse and worse. I remember I did the interview with Jon Anik and Mark Munoz, and I could hardly see anything.”

“The [Retina Institute] said, ‘Yep, your retina is re-detached. Obviously I couldn’t believe it. They said we need to operate ASAP. And I said, ‘Well I’m still fighting in four weeks, so you can’t operate. Simple as that.’ They said, ‘You can’t do that. You’ll go blind.’ I said, ‘I’ve got to fight in four weeks. Thousands of people have bought tickets, they’re expecting me there… I was devastated. Then he said, ‘You’ve got a ways to go if you’re ever going to fight again.’ Then I was just completely in shock. This is who I am. This is what I do. It defines who I am as a person.”

According to his interview with ‘The MMA Hour‘ Michael Bisping’s career may indeed be over if he cannot bounce back from his recent eye surgery.

The top middleweight fighter was scheduled to face off with MArk Munoz in Manchester, England, but a sudden detached Retina forced him off the card and may actually halt his fighting all-together if it cannot be repaired properly.