The UFC Vegas 88 co-main event between Bryan Battle and Ange Loosa ended unceremoniously after an accidental eye-poke left Loosa unable to continue in round two.
Round one went the way of ‘The Butcher’ Battle as he seemed to find his timing early on where he was able to control the fight at range. He then began letting his hands go more often, mixing in some sharp teep kicks up the middle of Loosa’s body.
Round two began with some more of the same as Battle continued to control the pace of the fight. About a minute into the second round, Loosa went for a level change looking to possibly take the fight to the ground. The two welterweights seemed to momentarily clash heads, and as Battle broke the grip of Loosa, he shoved his open hands out in front of him, accidentally digging his thumb into the left eye of the Swiss.
Mike Beltran called a stop to the action after noticing the accidental eye-poke but failed to tell Loosa that he had five minutes to try and recover. Shortly after, Beltran called in the doctor to examine the eye of Loosa, but he also failed to mention that ‘The Last Ninja’ had five minutes to recover.
After using a cold compress, which is allowed by the Nevada State Athletic Commission, the referee tried to relieve some of the pain. Despite that, Loosa was adamant that he couldn’t see out of his left eye, and the doctor ordered Beltran to call the fight shortly after.
Social media reacts to the stoppage
After Bruce Buffer announced the result, the middleweights had to be separated as they exchanged words with Battle seemingly furious that Loosa couldn’t continue.
Loosa was escorted out of the Octagon as Michael Bisping spoke to Bryan Battle who said that he wanted to run the fight back after ‘beating the s*** out of him’.