"The pain was times ten than before" - Michael Bisping provides in-depth explanation of his eye surgery; says he wanted to sue the doctors

Michael Bisping appeared on Jeff Wittek’s Jeff FM podcast and opened up on multiple topics. One of the topics discussed was how the former UFC middleweight champion lost vision in his right eye.

Speaking about the pain he had previously experienced due to his eye injury, Michael Bisping revealed that “the pain was times ten than before” after one of his surgeries. Bisping also suggested that the doctors botched the surgery – the surgery after which he completely lost vision in his right eye – and that he wanted to sue them.

Michael Bisping recalled that the original injury was a detached right retina caused by his head kick KO loss against Vitor Belfort. Bisping noted that he underwent surgery to repair it but returned to hard sparring and training too soon.

Apparently, Michael Bisping developed scar tissue around the area and that, coupled with the impact from sparring, detached his retina again. Bisping underwent a couple of surgeries to rectify this. Unfortunately, in the ensuing days, he ended up suffering from a severe headache.

His wife drove him to the hospital. When the headache and pain in and around his eyes didn’t subside, the doctors decided that he needed to undergo emergency surgery. Michael Bisping noted that he was administered painkillers and later underwent emergency surgery. Bisping stated:

“So, I’m unconscious, obviously. Then, I come around. I’m strapped into the bed, and I come around early. And I start f**king freaking out, shaking like crazy, and the doctors are like, ‘Calm down. Calm down. We’re almost done. You’ve just come around a little bit early. We’re almost done with the procedure’. Anyway, I see a f**king needle come right in (into my right eye). I’m like, ‘Whoa! What the f**k?’. It does that, and then the pain was times ten than before. Before, it was like a really, really bad, like, dull ache, but just insane. This was sharp. This was an incredibly sharp pain.”

Michael Bisping explained that he was screaming in pain. The doctors asked ‘The Count’ about his pain, in response to which, he told them that it was even worse than before.

Michael Bisping overheard a nurse talking about what happened to him

Michael Bisping (left); Vitor Belfort (right)

Michael Bisping crashed in the bed, and then got injected with another needle to the eye. Bisping highlighted that he was then given more anesthesia and was rendered unconscious again. He added:

“I come around the next day. I’m in a hotel room. I come around. And then, a nurse came in. And I heard her talking on the phone, and I know what happened. The iris, the color part of your eye, is like a gel disc. And when they put the drain in, they f**ked it up; this is to my understanding. And I’m sure a doctor would say this is a little inaccurate, but this is my understanding of it. And the drain kind of sucked the iris into it. The iris was kind of mingled in with the f**king drain. So, they had to undo all the surgery, and then redo it. And then when I came around from that surgery, I never saw out of this (right) eyeball again. And I’ve looked into it; statute to the limitations. Well, I wanted to sue the motherf**kers.”

Michael Bisping continued his MMA career despite losing sight in his right eye and went on to win the UFC middleweight title. Bisping competed in his final MMA fight in November 2017 and announced his retirement from MMA in 2018. He was later inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame. Presently, Bisping works as a UFC commentator and MMA analyst.