‘Triple C’—double vision, and a hard-to-swallow loss. A loss is one thing, but loss of vision? A whole different headache. Well, it’s not like Henry Cejudo went blind after he got double-eye-poked by Song Yadong on Saturday. No, the unintentional eye poke from Yadong in Round 4 of their UFC Seattle bout left Cejudo with Diplopia—a condition where a person has double vision. The cause for it? Soft tissue damage and corneal abrasion.
Since then Cejudo spoke about the incident and gave updates about his eye condition in a recent Pound 4 Pound episode. He said, “I kinda did this like ‘Hey you guys give me a second, like I am gonna fight. I am just waiting for my eyesight to come back.’ So I think what people need to—I mean I can open my eyes but the problem is I was seeing double. You know what I’m saying? Like I was seeing two of Song dude. He pokes me in the eye and then he starts that third round like this like with his f*****g hands in front like, you know what I’m saying?”
Despite the fight being full of action, there were multiple fouls committed. Along with the eye pokes, but Cejudo also got kicked in the groin. Many in the community argue that eye pokes should be penalized, unintentional or otherwise.
Meanwhile, ‘Triple C’ also gave an update on what the doctor said and the verdict was pretty shocking. Cejudo explained, “Like I think that should automatically be a point deduction. You know Kamaru, things are still like blurry in my left eye like I am still seeing double. So even as I am watching the fight right now, like on the screen, like there is still—like my eye is still not good. But luckily I saw the ophthalmologist today dude, and this is what she said man‚she says, ‘If that pinky had hit you in the pupil, you would have been blinded. I have a dent in my eye dude. I got a you know freaking ruptured [eye].”
‘Triple C’ even uploaded closeup images of his eye to prove that he was not exaggerating the injury. He revealed the serious condition—a bloodshot eye, with the photo having the caption, “Diplopia, soft tissue damage, and corneal abrasion.”
There are a few questions to be asked here. 1) Should eye pokes be penalized without warning? 2) Should the fight have been declared a no-contest? 3) With the fight being full of high-octane action, is a rematch between Henry Cejudo and Song Yadong warranted? So far, we have no answers and the first two questions will be the subject of speculation. Hopefully, we don’t see more such injuries before the UFC takes a strong stance on penalizing eye pokes. With regard to the third question, however, UFC head honcho Dana White gave a resolute verdict.
Dana White’s verdict on Henry Cejudo’s eyes being poked
The UFC head honcho shut down any conversation of a rematch. He said, “Not at all,” to the reporter who asked him about a rematch. “Not even a little bit. I just don’t want to see it again.” The boss acknowledged Yadong’s strong performance and seemed like he was throwing ‘Triple C’ under the bus for the outcome. “Song looked good,” White said. “Only (Cejudo) can answer those questions. I don’t know if he thought, ‘If I stop here, is this a DQ, a no contest?’ I don’t know what he was thinking, or maybe he can’t see.”
Cejudo, on the other hand, uploaded a video addressing the injury. He said, “Today is February 23rd. I guess hours after my fight and we just wanted to make sure that we’re showing you guys some of the damage that my eye has gone through. I’m still seeing double. I’m still seeing blurriness. So it hopefully goes away, but f**k, I don’t know what to say.”
The controversy about the stoppage arose from the circumstances prior to the doctor’s involvement. He took the whole 5 minutes to recover but his vision was not all there. “I cannot f*****g see,”, is what he told his corner leading to the ringside doctor’s intervention. The aftermath of this eye poke is seeing significant upheaval because Cejudo even called for a rule change in UFC.
While ‘Triple C’ did accept that the Chinese fighter did not poke him intentionally, he claimed that a point should still have been deducted. “Did Song do it intentionally? No. Should there be a point deducted? 100 percent, man,” he remarked, emphasizing that fighters are already instructed to keep their fingers folded before entering the cage. There have been other instances of eye pokes in UFC with Jeremy Stephens, Pedro Munhoz, and Daniel Cormier experiencing some of the worst eye pokes seen in promotional history during their fights.
While there was some hope of eye pokes being reduced with the introduction of the new gloves, that also went down the drain when the new ones were retracted for the old ones at UFC 309. Yes, we’re seeing people getting KO’d left, right, and center, but we haven’t gotten rid of the nasty eye pokes that change the outcome of fights. Should we bring the new (now old) gloves back? Let us know what you think in the comments down below.
The post “I Have a Dent in My Eye” – Henry Cejudo Reveals Eye Doctor’s Chilling Verdict on Controversial Eye-Poke From Song Yadong appeared first on EssentiallySports.
