Pedro Munhoz has revealed that he suffered a scratched cornea against Sean O’Malley at UFC 276 on Saturday night, which resulted in their fight being declared a no-contest.
Munhoz had already taken an eyepoke earlier in the fight against O’Malley in the main card opener before the second round incident, which led to a stoppage to give him time to recover.
Unfortunately, Munhoz could be overheard telling a doctor that he couldn’t see out of his right eye due to the poke and so the fight was waved off.
“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 on Instagram. “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.”
Some fans had accused Munhoz of looking for a way out of the fight, despite it having been relatively uneventful up to that point, but the UFC’s own Senior Vice President of Athlete Development and Marketing, Reed Harris took to social media to confirm that the fighter had suffered a damaging eye injury.
“At UFC Host hotel this morning. Just saw @PedroMunhozmma,” Harris wrote. “For all you doubters out there, his eye is swollen shut. When to hopotal last night and eye is scratched. This shit is real. BTW- he said he knows it was an accident and h nothing but respect for Sean.”
