MEXICO: Jessica Eye and Leslie Smith engaged in a spirited slugfest for the better part of the first round, until a right hand by Eye landed squarely on Smith's left ear in the waning seconds of the round on the preliminary card at UFC 180 Saturday in Mexico City Arena.
It split Smith's ear open,
sending blood pouring out and covering the side of her face. In between
rounds, doctors took a long time to look at the ear and opted to allow
Smith to continue.
But not long after the second
began, the fighters clinched and Eye then connected with a couple of
short rights from close range that opened it again. After another Eye
right, referee Herb Dean called time to have the doctors examine it
again when the ear was flapping down.
When it was shown on the gigantic video board in the arena, the crowd let out a loud "Ewww!"
After an examination, Dean
stopped it on the advice of the ringside physicians. Smith angrily
protested, but Dean had no choice but to stop it at 1:30 of the second,
giving Eye the TKO victory in the women's bantamweight bout.
Smith was competitive and landing
good shots of her own, but the risk to her health was too great to
allow the fight to go forward.
"When
I connected and saw her ear blow up, that became my main target," Eye
said. "I was going to keep hitting it until they stopped the fight or it
fell off. My goal is to be the first girl in the UFC to get a knockout
win. I know I’ll do it. Now I’ve climbed another rung on the ladder, and
I’ll look around and see what my options are, but 'Im almost to the
top."
No comments:
Post a Comment