UFC News: After 10 Percent Vision, Georges St-Pierre Returns to Training

Georges "Rush" St-Pierre retained his UFC welterweight championship for the sixth consecutive time on April 30, defeating top ranked contender Jake Shields with relative ease.  What makes the feat all the more extraordinary is that St-Pierre did it with vision in just one eye. 

Despite fighting nearly blind for most of the fight, the champion was able to keep Shields from taking him down the entire five round affair.

St-Pierre suffered from hyphema, a bleeding in the eye.  He was required to wear an eye patch and use medicated drops until it healed.  He has since improved and has been cleared to resume training.

One of St-Pierre's trainers, Bruno Fernandes, is also an eye specialist.  He said that in severe cases of hyphema the person can suffer permanent damage to their vision.  Although Georges had only 10 percent of his vision at one point, his case was not severe and he has made a full recovery.

Fernandes stated that after the champ suffered the injury he still knew he could fight.  He stated, "By using instruments, if I had an idea how bad it was, if I knew there was no retina detachment, no open wound, and if it's not 100 percent but he can see fingers, using the tools available at that moment it would be OK to let fight continue."

Its good to know that St-Pierre will be able to fight again soon.  With a possible future bout with Nick Diaz looming on the horizon, the champion's health becomes all the more important. 

The link to the source article is below.

http://www.mmafighting.com/2011/05/16/after-10-percent-visibility-st-pierres-eye-healed-as-champ-r/