Just to clarify something I've wondered about for a while...
I've always thought that "losing his eye" was metaphorical, even when he removed that prosthetic on camera, it's not a full fake eyeball there, just a "cover" for aesthetic... his eye is still there under it, but he can't see much out of it.
I think he said 30% or something, which was how he was able to fool to doctors into thinking he was still seeing well. You couldn't get cleared to fight at this level if you're literally missing an eyeball.
Then some time after the Gastelum fight, when he was sure he was staying retired, he had his eyeball removed entirely, so it stopped hurting, and since he could barely see out of it anyway...
I'm sure I got some details wrong, but that's pretty much the gist of it, right? He still had his eye in the UFC, it was just damaged badly and he couldn't see well out of it?
About fighters that never gave up on their dreams, I'd like to give a shout out to
Yoon Dong Sik, aka
the Judo King without a Crown
When he arrived in Japan in 2005 and lost his first fight against Kazushi Sakuraba, the Gracie Hunter invited him to stay in Japan and train in MMA with his connections.
That's when the man that will later be known as the
Dongbar made a vow... he would stay in Japan and keep fighting until he got a win.
PRIDE never let him have an easy one though, even if his next fight against his former Judo rival
Makoto Takimoto (who won a Gold medal in the 2000s Summer Olympic in Sydney) was arguably a step down in competition...
Sadly he didn't taste victory yet, and lost to the man he once beat in Judo at the 2000 Osaka games, where Takimoto got the Bronze medal while Yoon Dong Sik got the gold.
Dong Sik Yoon then faced Rampage Jackson, showing his toughness by taking Quinton to a decision
then lost another decision to former UFC champion, Brazilian Top Team OG and all around BJJ badass Murilo Bustamante.
Things started to look grim for our King without a Crown, and when he was matched up against Melvin Manhoef for his first fight outside of PRIDE, he was a huge underdog.
"No Mercy" was in a pretty good place at this point, being 17-3-1 in MMA, with his only recent loss being to Judo prodigy Sexyama.
The fight started and Manhoef was true to his nickname, it was pretty damn violent!
But Dong did it, he did it the absolute madman!!!
The Dongbar was officially born, I don't know if it was first used by a sherdogger but someone posted a thread right after the fight titled "DONG DONG DONG I LOVE DONG" in which he descibred the dongbar, so if he got it somewhere else, it made its way to sherdog fast.
But since the fight wasn't in California, I guess it didn't count in his head? Because his next opponent is a favorite of mine, another striker, the man we used to call
"Lil' Cro Cop" while he was fighting in Cage Rage (he even won the MW belt there!) and sherdoggers were making threads and highlights of his KO's, I'm of course talking about
ZELG "BENKEI" GALESIC
Dude just looked like he was having so much fun in there, always smiling, his walkouts where always infectious when he'd look at the crowd bopping his head... I couldn't help but root for the Croatian, even if I still wanted Dong to get his win in Japan!
... WHICH HE DID VIA DONGBAR AGAIN!!!
His quest was over, his career wasn't, but he had persevered, never took an easy fight, and it had been a pleasure watching him compete in Sakuraba's QUINTET events in 2018... MMA is a flat circle, and to me, seems like Donbars are winning!
