It appears that Pedro
Munhoz had good reason for being unable to continue against
Sean
O’Malley in their bantamweight clash at UFC
276.
Advertisement
The fight was ruled a no contest at the 3:09 mark of Round 2 after
an accidental eye poke from O’Malley impaired Munhoz’s vision
enough that the cageside physician advised that the bout be called
off. The 35-year-old American Top Team representative released a
statement via Instagram revealing that he suffered a scratched
cornea as a result of the foul.
“To explain briefly what happened in the fight against Sean
O’Malley, I was poked in the eye in the first round but kept
fighting, and was hit with a low blow shortly after,” Munhoz said
(translation via
MMAFighting.com). “The fight restarted and we exchanged a few
strikes. In the second round, that’s when I suffered another eye
poke. I couldn’t see anything for 20 minutes. I was taken to the
hospital and they used a special eyedrop that made my eye numb so
they could open my eye.
“They did an exam and the medical report I have is that there’s a
scratch in the cornea all the way around it. I couldn’t open my eye
because of that and couldn’t see anything. The referee asked if I
could see at all and the doctor decided to stop the fight. That’s
what happened tonight.”
O’Malley, meanwhile, was skeptical of the severity of Munhoz’s
injury and speculated that his opponent was looking for a way out
of the fight. While neither fighter seemed to have gained a clear
advantage prior to the foul, O’Malley was confident that the action
was tilting in his favor.
“100 percent that’s what’s going on in my mind,” O’Malley told
media at a post-fight press conference. “I’ll have to rewatch it. I
was piecing him up. I didn’t get hit once. He came in there and
said, ‘I’m going to kick his legs and try to take him down.’ He
tried kicking my legs and it damaged him more. He couldn’t get me
up against the fence. He couldn’t take me down. I was dominating
that fight.”