Healed From Multiple Eye Surgeries, Michael Bisping Ready To Take On ‘Dirty Fighter’ Tim Kennedy
Recently recovered from surgery to repair a detached retina, UFC middleweight Michael Bisping has been out of the cage since his UFC 159 technical decision win over Alan “The Talent” Belcher.
A lot has happened in that time frame, including the dethroning of Anderson Silva, the man whom Bisping always wanted to get a title shot against. With top-level fighters like Chris Weidman, Lyoto Machida, and Vitor Belfort lapping him in the rankings, “The Count” has a lot of work to do.
That journey begins on April 16, when Bisping faces Tim Kennedy in the main event of the TUF: Nations Finale. Healthy and cleared to fight, Bisping stopped by “The MMA Hour” today to discuss the complications surrounding his recovery from a potentially career-threatening eye injury:
“The Patrick Swayze lookalike thing is out of the window these days because the eye has got a kind of, it’s much darker than it used to be. There is actually oil inside the eye, that what creates the darkness. And unfortunately, because of all the procedures and operations that I’ve had, there is a turn in the eye. They can fix these things, but they’re going to do it after I’m done fighting. I don’t want to put the eye under any more trauma.”
It sounds like Bisping dodged a bullet and avoided his career being cut short, but the injury still sounds very serious. He’ll have to dodge a bullet of a different kind when he faces off with “The Sniper” on April 16 from Quebec City, but that’s a proposition that has “The Count” excited:
“I’m sure he’s a decent enough guy, he’s just one of these people who’s calling me out and he’s trying to make it personal and this and that, and I applaud him for that. Good for him, he’s trying to make a name for himself in mixed martial arts, and he’s done a good job, he’s talked himself into a high profile fight, a main event.
But, he said a few things that pissed me off. Someone’s that’s going to continually take shots at me in the media, that’s going to grate on me eventually, and he’s doing that. So, I’m very much looking forward to fighting the guy.”
The No. 5-ranked Bisping is apparently motivated by the fact that Kennedy has taken some jabs at Bisping for being a dirty fighter, most notably stemming from his infamous win over Jorge Rivera. However, Bisping said Kennedy is far from a saint himself:
“For him to call me a dirty fighter was just ridiculous because in between falling asleep when watching his fights because they are truly boring, there’s plenty of eye pokes and kicks to the balls. It’s a case of the pot calling the kettle black.”
Bisping’s upcoming grudge match with Kennedy is definitely fueled by trash talk, but as we’ve seen lately, those matches don’t always deliver once it’s time to step in the cage. Will “The Count’s” return buck that trend?
