The main event of this weekend's UFC Fight Night card ended in a no contest, after one of the most brutal eye pokes ever seen in the sport.<\/p>\n
Belal Muhammad and Leon Edwards headlined the event in a welterweight matchup, but it was stopped midway through the second round after Edwards accidentally caught Muhammad in the eye with a wayward finger while throwing a punch. <\/p>\n
"Oh my god this looks like a bad one," said commentator and former middleweight champion Michael Bisping.<\/p>\n
"There's no faking that, you can see the pain, and his eye. Let me tell you, the pain is like nothing else."<\/p>\n
Former heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier called it the 'worst case scenario' for both fighters.<\/p>\n
"For a guy in Belal Muhammad who's in this spot, and who's been looking for it for so many years – and for Leon Edwards, who's been away for so long and then this happens," he said.<\/p>\n
It was Edwards' first fight since 2019 – after having a contest in late 2020 called off due to a positive COVID test which was so severe it resulted him losing 6kg of mass<\/a>.<\/p>\n A clearly emotional Muhammad was downed for several minutes, with the uncomfortable silence of an empty arena only accentuating his cries of pain.<\/p>\n "I can't see anything, holy shit," he said at one point.<\/p>\n Edwards apologised and the two men embraced briefly as referee Herb Dean ruled the bout a no contest. <\/p>\n It was the second fight of the night to end in a no contest, after middleweight Eryk Anders landed an illegal knee to opponent Darren Stewart's head, who was a downed opponent.<\/p>\n