Michael Bisping Regrets Fighting Kelvin Gastelum At UFC Fight Night Shanghai
Bisping would retire a few months after that encounter, which is a fight that he regretted accepting in the first place.
“Anderson Silva failed a steroid test and Kelvin Gastelum needed another opponent,” Bisping said to Submission Radio (via Alexander K. Lee of MMA Fighting). “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.”
That bout against Gastelum came exactly three weeks after a fight against Georges St. Pierre at UFC 217, which was the quickest turnaround of Bisping’s professional MMA career.
The retired fighter, who has had a history of eye issues, had thought he would go blind after the bout against Gastelum.
“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.”
Since retiring, fans have been able to see Bisping provide color commentary for a multitude of UFC events, while also hosting a podcast and occasionally acting in feature films.
