LAS VEGAS – Dana White is not ready to say that the eyeball that Daniel Cormier suffered at UFC 252 was the reason for the outcome of the fight.
UFC heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic (20-3 MMA, 14-3 UFC) survived Cormier in a five-round fight in Saturday’s main event at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, putting her close to her historic trilogy.
For Cormier (22-3 MMA, 11-3 UFC), who confirmed he will retire after the fight, the loss had a bit of an asterisk on it. Cormier was wrapped in Round 3 in his left eye, which apparently resulted in a tornado that he said hampered his vision for the rest of the fight.
But White said that both Miocic and Cormier caught eye during the fight and that he noticed that Cormier’s eye was already damaged before he played poker.
‘You can’t look at the eyeball and take that away. There were two eye pox – they were both bitten in the eye, and that eye hurt before the poke, “White told reporters, including MMA Junkie, after UFC 252.” We have a big group text going on, and I was like, ‘There’s something wrong with Cormier’s eye,’ and then he was caught. That did not help, but they were both poked – you can not use that as an excuse.
‘I think his eye hurt before the poke and the poke absolutely did not help. But you can not look at the poke and say, ‘Oh, the poke.’ Support was also grabbed hard. They were both caught. ”
Smallpox was a big story in this heavyweight championship trilogy. Their third fight took almost a year to become a book. Miocic needed time to recover from his own damaged eye when he was caught multiple times by Cormier at UFC 241 and was afraid the same thing would happen to him again. But it was Cormier who this time was at the receiving end of a seemingly damaging eyeball.
The other narrative was who would appear to be the greatest heavyweight in UFC history, and it was Miocic who could pull his hand up in the rubber match.
“It was a great fight,” White said. ‘I had it 2-2 for the final round. It was the fight that everyone thought it was going to be, and it was exciting. How hard are both of those guys? I mean, both guys are bitten in the eye, both guys are rocked. They fought their hearts out. It was an incredibly heavyweight championship. ”
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