Andre Fili was on fire tonight at UFC Fight Night 190 as he had Daniel Pineda badly hurt by punches and kicks on several occasions, but then an accidental eyepoke sealed his opponent’s already damaged eye shut to the extent he couldn’t continue, leading to a no-contest ruling.
Round One:
Hard right hand from Pineda to start. Crisp left from Fili sends Pineda reeling backwards off-balance.
Pineda clinches up against the cage. Fili able to push him away. Nice jab and then a hard right hand from Fili that rocks Pineda, but doesn’t quite drop him.
Pineda looked woozy immediately after that, but then comes back to life and bursts into a takedown. Fili stops it and Pineda settles for clinching against the cage.
Fili pushes him away again and lands a kick. Jab for Fili, but Pineda connects with a good leg kick.
Pineda with a counter left hand. Big head kick attempt from Pineda is just blocked, but then he eats another big punch and seems rocked again. He tries to clinch and Fili slickly lands a takedown.
Pineda with a cut to his left eye, but manages to get back to his feet. Real toughness being shown by Pineda, but Fili is really beating him up on the feet in the fight so far.
Body kick from Fili and Pineda winces and hunches over in pain. Still he doesn’t give up though, but Fili brings him down and remains there until the end of the round. Very rough first round for Pineda, who seems to be getting hurt almost every time Fili connects.
Round Two:
Big right hand from Pineda. Hard body kick for Fili. He goes for one upstairs too.
Hard left hook for Pineda. Eye poke from Fili forces a stoppage to give Pineda time to recover. It’s the same eye that already suffered damage in the opening round and was swelling up, so he might have trouble getting it open again here.
Ref and doc giving him plenty of time here, but he’s struggling to get it open. Pineda’s insists he can see and wants to continue, but when the doctor asks him how many fingers he’s holding up he has no idea and just guesses wrongly. The second time this happens, ref Herb Dean steps in and waves off the fight.
So unfortunate for Fili as he was absolutely dominating the action there, but to be fair to Pineda, he was as tough as they come throughout the fight, so no-one can say he was looking for an easy way out.
And so the fight unfortunately ends in a no-contest ruling at 0.46mins of the second round.
