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‘Eye to Eye’: One-Eyed UFC Fighter Meets Inspiration Michael Bisping, Fans React in Awe

Allan Binoy
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Middleweight champion Michael Bisping speaks to the media to promote his bout against Georges St-Pierre (not pictured) prior to weigh ins for UFC 209 at T-Mobile Arena.

Michael Bisping and Sharabutdin Magomedov have taken the phrase, ‘seeing eye-to-eye’ very seriously. Because that’s exactly what they did when they met up. Both fighters have just one functioning eye and are living testaments to the oddity of the fighting business.

Although Bisping does not fight anymore, the Brit became a UFC champion with one glass eye! And while ‘Bullet’ is still raw and on the rise, he has a long way to go before he reaches the level of the Brit.

One can only imagine how difficult it must have been for someone with an obvious disadvantage to try and make it a sport that depends on all the senses working and dialed to eleven.

But for Shara ‘Bullet’, it helped that there was somewhere there at the very pinnacle of the sport, who overcame the exact same physical disadvantages


Ahead of his next fight, the Russian fighter finally gets a chance to meet his idol and fans loved to see the pair interacting, joking, “Definitely seeing eye to eye”. 

One fan reiterated this being a super cool moment, especially for Magomedov, and said, “This is pretty wholesome ngl”. 

Another fan spoke about how the pair may have only one eye each, but they make up for it: “Two eyes between them but the heart and mindset of 10”. This fan compared the pair to a Greek creature residing on the island of Hephaistos and claimed, “Bisping looking out for his fellow cyclops in the fight game #oneeyegang”.

Regardless of the jokes, it was good to see a young fighter meet his hero in a sport he’s currently pursuing.

Magomedov on Bisping, his inspiration

Sharabutdin ‘Bullet’ Magomedov made it very clear when he joined the UFC itself that there was one man he looked up to; a man who shared the same circumstances as him, former middleweight champion Michael Bisping.

After running into him ahead of his next fight, the Russian went on to talk about how the Brit inspired him when he was the man of the hour

“Bisping has really motivated me a lot when he was fighting in the UFC. I know about his health issues and that was also a factor…It’s a huge motivation for me especially since he became champion.”

‘Bullet’ sees Bisping as the blueprint, a one-eyed UFC fighter who became champion. He fights in the UFC with the same goals in mind right now.

However, that is easier said than done. Sure, he has the potential to do it, but the division he fights in is stacked to the brim and he needs to take his place.

The middleweight title currently belongs to Dricus Du Plessis, who just beat one of the greatest middleweight champions of all time, Israel Adesanya, and is poised to fight former champion Sean Strickland.

At the same time, two of the biggest contenders in the division, Robert Whittaker and Khamzat Chimaev are going up against each other to determine, who fights DDP next.

So yes, right now Magomedov has a long way to go. But given that he’s already made the difficult journey to the UFC, this should be well within his reach in some time.

Post Edited By:Smrutisnat Jena

About the author

Allan Binoy

Allan Binoy

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Allan Binoy is a MMA journalist at The SportsRush. Taken to the sport in 2015, thanks to a certain Conor McGregor, Allan has himself dabbled in the martial arts. And having graduated from Loyola College, Chennai, with a degree in English Literature, he has learnt to use his love for language to have a voice in the MMA community. Allan has been writing about the gladiatorial stories for more than three years now and has pursued excellence at a number of reputable media organizations, covering every UFC PPV in the last couple of years. In addition to this, the southpaw is also a semi-professional soccer player for Diego Juniors FC in Pune, playing in the Pune Super Division League.

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