Copeland: My eye was blind for weeks after Magomedov kick
Josh Copeland: “Worst-case scenario you’re going to break a bone or get knocked out or whatever. You don’t really think of losing your eyesight.”
Heavyweight Josh ‘Cuddly Bear’ Copeland made his UFC debut vs. Ruslan Magomedov on the undercard of UFC Fight Night in Austin, Texas, Saturday, Nov. 22, 2014. Copeland lost for the fist time, via unanimous decision. Maybe you remember the fight.
Maybe you don’t remember it. But the consequences of a fight often last long after the cheers have died, and not all of them are great. Late in the second round, Magomedov landed a high kick and a toe caught Copeland in the eye. He couldn’t see out of it for weeks.
Neil Davidson of The Canadian Press has the story.
“Instantly everything turned completely white,” he recalled.
Copeland kept fighting even though he couldn’t see out of the eye.
“I was blind in that eye for a couple of a weeks,” he said. “You always think going in there, worst-case scenario you’re going to break a bone or get knocked out or whatever. You don’t really think of losing your eyesight.”
Copeland recoiled in obvious pain when the kick landed. After the second round, when the doctor asked whether he could see out of his left eye, he replied, “yes.”
He went to hospital immediately after losing a 29-28, 30-27, 30-27 decision.
“(Friend and cornerman) Justin Wren basically told me not to lie any more, because in there (the cage) I didn’t want them to call the fight. So I did my best to play off it, (say) that I could see out of it. So that way I could keep fighting and hopefully catch him.”
Copeland didn’t, but still had his best round of the fight.
Looking back, has he rethought his decision to lie about the injury during the fight?
“I’m a fighter,” he said. “It’s kind of tough to take an easy way out, I guess.
“If I was sitting here blind in my left eye right now and you asked me that question, then of course the answer’s going to be yes … but looking back at it now, I was definitely glad I was able to go.”
The 32-year-old Arkansas native, who fights out of Denver, considers himself “definitely blessed” that his vision came back.
Copeland says he was impressed by how the UFC treated him after the fight, changing travel plans and providing extra spending money for he and his wife so he could get more medical treatment.
“I was like, ‘Holy Cow, they really do care about their fighters.’ They didn’t want me to fly out the next day without going in Monday to get a full checkup to make sure I could fly.”
Josh Copeland fights Jared ‘The Big Show’ Rosholt on March 14 at UFC 185 in Dallas, Texas. Copeland had asked to fight any heavyweight in the UFC but Rosholt. Although he now trains at Trevor Wittman’s Grudge in Colorado, the pair had trained together at Team Takedown in the DFW area for the Magomedov fight. UFC matchmaker Joe Silva explained however that with only 40 signed heavyweights, that was not an option.
