UFC Hall of Famer Michael Bisping has long been considered one of the toughest men to ever step foot into the Octagon, but if there are any who still question “The Count,” his latest story should make you a convert.

Bisping, who retired from MMA in 2018 is still deeply involved with the UFC as both a commentator and analyst. In November of last year, Bisping released his autobiography, Quitters Never Win: My Life in UFC, and since then has made a few promotional appearances for the book. Most recently, he went on the UFC Unfiltered podcast where fellow Hall of Famer Matt Serra and he began to chop it up about the old days and Serra brought up Bisping’s pair of fights with former middleweight champion Luke Rockhold. Serra commented that he happened to be at both events and was supremely impressed with Bisping’s confidence coming into the rematch despite being thoroughly dominated in their first match, which prompted Bisping to reveal an unfortunate injury situation he had heading into that bout.

“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,” Bisping said. “This is all in the book. Obviously, everybody knows I’ve got one bad eye that pretty much, well, I have a fake eye in there now so it doesn’t work. [Laughs]. 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 f*cking thing. It was like somebody taking a tub of paint and pouring it on a wind screen and then you put the windshield wipers on and it will wipe the paint off but it will just smear. So the blood was going into my eye, 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. I had no idea what f*cking happened because I couldn’t see sh*t. 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 f*cking took it because I knew I could beat that guy.”

And beat him, he did. Bisping knocked out Rockhold in the first round, finally claiming UFC gold and cementing his legacy. It’s wild to think how Bisping’s legacy may have been altered had he not suffered that training injury before his first fight with Rockhold, but it’s safe to say things worked out in the end for the Hall of Famer.

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VIDEO STEW

UFC 246 Rewind.

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LISTEN UP

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SOCIAL MEDIA BOUILLABAISSE

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Such incredible trash talk.

Izzy.

Finally a man brave enough to speak the truth.

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FIGHT ANNOUNCEMENTS

Jack Shore (12-0) vs. Gerald de Freitas (12-5); UFC London, March 21.

Jeremy Stephens (28-17, 1 NC) vs. Calvin Kattar (20-4); UFC 249, April 18.

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FINAL THOUGHTS

Big weekend this weekend. UFC Raleigh is honestly arguably a better card top to bottom than UFC 246 was and Bellator’s offering this weekend is also excellent. Enjoy it folks and see y’all on Monday.

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EXIT POLL

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