Earlier this week both Francisco Rivera and Urijah Faber seemed set on the idea of having an immediate rematch following an unfortunate end to their encounter at UFC 181 on Saturday night due to an accidental eye-poke, but it seems those plans will have to be put on hold for now.
Rivera had somewhat surprisingly appeared to be getting the better of Faber at the weekend up until a second round eye-poke that wasn’t spotted by the referee switched the momentum in Faber’s favor, allowing him to swarm his opponent with punches and then apply the bulldog choke finish.
Rivera’s camp quickly put out a request to the UFC to ask for a rematch and Faber was also open to the idea, suggesting January 3rd’s UFC 182 event as a potential battleground.
However, yesterday Rivera discovered the unfortunate news that the eyepoke has left him requiring surgery
“I have a crack in my retina and a bruise in my eye…need to get laser eye surgery to stop it from spreading,” Rivera told Sherdog.com.
So the fight will have to be put on hold for now, but few would argue that there’s unfinished business here that should be settled in the Octagon at a later date.
