When Michael Bisping won the UFC Middleweight Championship from Luke Rockhold at UFC 199, the 41-year-old was on top of the world. So, when Bisping dropped the belt to Georges St-Pierre at UFC 217, many believed that the middleweight would bounce back and regain the title eventually.
However, Bisping took a fight against Kelvin Gastelum just three weeks later, and many questioned whether it the right move for the former middleweight champion. Not surprisingly, Gastelum would beat Bisping via TKO in the first round; however, the former UFC fighter would lose more than just a fight that day as Bisping started having issues in his good eye.
The following year, Bisping would officially announce retirement from the sport due to health reasons and looking back, the former UFC Middleweight Champion reveals on Submission Radio that he does regret taking that short notice fight against Gastelum at UFC Fight Night Shanghai (Transcript courtesy of MMA Fighting):
“Anderson Silva failed a steroid test and Kelvin Gastelum needed another opponent,” Bisping said. “I was over-trained for GSP, and I was like, screw it, whatever, it is what it is, I’ll fly out there, get another payday. So, I went out there. So, listen, money’s one thing and legacy is another. You can’t buy a legacy. So, I do regret doing that Kelvin Gastelum fight, because I had no business doing that.
“I was over-trained. In fact, I didn’t train for that fight whatsoever. I was overtrained from the GSP one. Then I went on the piss for a couple of weeks, and then flew out to China with my mates, you know what I mean? He was training for the biggest fight of his life, I had already been choked out a couple of weeks ago. So, the conditions weren’t right. But there was a lot of money on the table, but I knew I was almost done. And for me, that’s why I got into this, I got into it to give my family a better life. And as I said, I won’t go into the actual number, but it was a big number, it was a huge number. And I’m like, alright, well I’ll go out and collect that, and I’ll fly out to China.”
Bisping would go on and explain the moment he realized that something was wrong with his good eye, which ultimately resulted in him retiring from mixed martial arts altogether:
“I fight Georges St-Pierre, I lose that fight, and he knew I was blind in one eye – he targeted it,” Bisping said. “Then, I fly to Shanghai, couple of weeks later I fight Kelvin Gastelum, I get cracked, I think I’ve had a good run and that was that.
“And then we go to an after-party afterward, and I’m sitting there in this club, and every time I look this way, I get a flash of light. I was like, what was that? So I look again, another flash of light. And every time I look to the left, I would get a flash of light. And I started panicking because I’m thinking, holy s*it, I don’t believe this, I’ve got a detached retina in my good eye. And I started getting emotional, in a night club. I’ve had a couple of drinks, but I’m like, f*ck, I’m thinking I’m gonna go blind.
“It’s a long flight back to (Los Angeles), and I wake up halfway through and I look to my left, and there’s that flashing light. Holy sh*t, I’ve forgotten all about that. So when I land, I call my eye doctor straight away, and he’s like, ‘Yeah, you need to go see someone.’ I go in there — and whenever I’m uncomfortable, I always use humor as kind of like a mask — and I went in and I see this doctor and I say, ‘Listen, doc, I think I’ve got a detached retina in my good eye.’ And he said, ‘Alright, well, let’s take a look, I’m gonna put some drops in you’re not gonna be able to see for a while.’ And I make a joke, I say, ‘Oh well, I guess I better get used to this view, ey?’ And he says, ‘Calm down, we’re not there just yet.’ And I was like, ‘We’re not f*cking there just yet? Jesus Christ.’ I was freaking out. And anyway, turns out I had a vitreous detachment.”
Check out the full interview where Bisping talks about not passing up the chance to fight Georges St-Pierre, Anderson Silva, and so much more regarding his career.