Michael Bisping on Beating Dan Henderson | Joe Rogan

Another one of your most impressive victories was the second fight with Dan Henderson because you got hit with some fucking bombs in that fight but you refused to go out. Yeah. You refused to be stopped in that fight. Yeah, you know what I mean? That was a display of willpower in a lot of ways because I remember watching those big shots from Henderson land and I mean they were on the edge. You were on the edge going out. Oh for sure, absolutely. I remember he hit me, I went down, he was swarming on me, hit me with some elbows. But I remember I was always fine but I was like holy shit, that was what hit me there. And then I managed to get myself back to my feet and blood pouring out my face and whatnot. Of course, second round, same thing happened and he had two big moments in the fight. Two big shots but they were big moments but you don't win a 25-minute fight by landing two shots. But they were big shots, fair play to him. But I refused to quit there because obviously going into that fight I talked a bit of shit, like always. And you can lie to everybody, you can lie to the media, you can lie to the press, you can lie to your family, lie to your coaches. Well it's not necessarily lies but you can ooze bravado and this and that. But you can't lie to yourself when you're letting better at night and your head's on the cushion. You can't bullshit yourself. And day of the fight, because the fight was at six in the morning, day of the fight I'm letting my bed trying to just have a nap because it was going to be a long night obviously. And I couldn't sleep and all I was thinking, human nature, last time I stepped into a knock-down with this guy I was fucking out cold for a long time. My brain was scrambled eggs for a long time after that fight. And as I say, you can lie to everybody else but now the fight was getting close and it's in my hometown and it's my first title defense and all this. I'm like shit, shit. I know I'm better than this guy but fuck, last time. Last time didn't end well. So I was getting a little worked up and I remember I was at the arena and I was kind of, you know, being a little edgy, a little snappy with people and there's no need for it. And then I just stopped, I started laughing and Prill. I said, what's, where you laughing at? I said, well, what's the worst that's going to happen if I lose? What's the worst, I'm going to lose a fight. It's happened before so why am I stressing myself out of it? I just started laughing and after that was fine. But yeah, yeah, it was, I definitely had a sore face the next day after that one for sure. Yeah, but you, you know, you got through the fire. Yeah, no, I did. And I felt great. The only problem was in the fifth round because this cheekbone and it was on my good side. It shotted the cheekbone on my good side and it swelled up so much. I could hardly see out of that eye. This eye is fucked as well. So in the fifth round, I'm like trying to like get a certain angle where I could even see the guys. You know what I mean? It was a nightmare, you know, but yeah, got the job done, fortunately. Is there anything that like is on the horizon in terms of like medical science that you're looking at in terms of being able to fix your eyes? Er, not that I know of. I spoke to doctors about it, you know, because I was, yeah, I was always curious what could be done, but I don't think in my lifetime there is. But the reason I retired was at the Gastelen fight because I was cleared to fight and the doctors were always like, we don't really advise it, but you are cleared. You've passed the test just by the skin of your teeth. And for me, that was all well and good. You got to do your medical. The most stressful part of all of that was when you, you got to go do a full training camp now and fly somewhere and you're going to see another doctor, a commissioned doctor at the way. Right. And you don't know what this doctor is going to be like. You don't know if he knows anything about eyes. You don't know if he wants to be a hero. You don't know if he wants to make fucking press. The guy that pulled the main event. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. Very, very stressful time. So for me, the fight was always the easy part. The hard part was just fucking making it to the oxygen and I go to the weigh ins and I get cleared. I'm like, yeah, the feelings. Okay. We're good. The fights on because I didn't know the fight was on until I got past the commission doctor. How many different fights did you have to go through like that? About 12, something like that. 12 fights with I'm not sure if it's 12, something like that. Hold on. Belcher, Kungli, no, Belcher, Tim Kennedy, Kungli, Rockhold, CB, Telly's Lighters, Anderson Silver, Luke Rockhold, Dan Henderson, GSP, Gastelum. 11. 11 fights.