With UFC 276 in the record books, there is a lot to take away from the event inside of T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. One of the major stories has been what happened between bantamweights Pedro Munhoz and Sean O’Malley in the first fight of the main card. However, O’Malley poked Munhoz in the eye in both the first and second round before the fight was ruled a no contest after Munhoz was unable to continue, but was it just a coverup to make sure he didn’t get a loss?
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What Exactly Happened?
Sean O’Malley and Pedro Munhoz faced off inside of the octagon at UFC 276 and they had a clean first round as neither fighter had a stoppage, though Munhoz had some issues with his right eye. However, in the second round, Munhoz was poked in the same eye and the fight was stopped as he was not able to continue fighting.
However, O’Malley did not believe that was the case as he reposted a YouTube link with a video and wrote “IT WAS A PUNCH THAT HURT PEDROS EYE TKO DR STOPPAGE 16-0 thanks fam love you guys” and claimed he should have won the fight as he was dominating up to that point. Many fans have sided with O’Malley as they have agreed with it as a copout. Fans and bettors that had O’Malley during the fight seem to believe this was just a way for him to just avoid getting dominated as he was throughout the fight.
Has Munhoz Responded?
Pedro Munhoz has been dealing with the injury to the point where he posted a video discussing the injury, but the fans decided that it was not a legitimate injury as some claimed it was the “wrong eye” and other faulty reasonings behind it. Munhoz heard the noise throughout his social media channels and decided to take it a step further and actually posted a picture of his medical report to his Instagram, where an ophthalmologist dianosted an “abrasion of the right corner and acute right eye pain”.
It’s a little difficult to understand where the opposing crowd is going with it as Munhoz has gone the distance with a lot of tough fighters including Dominick Cruz, Jose Aldo, and Frankie Edgar. Seven minutes with a fighter like Sean O’Malley seems like it would not be the time where he felt that he needed to leave at that point and was fearful of anything that he can do inside of the octagon.
Conclusion
Obviously, it is extremely difficult to prove that Pedro Munhoz was faking an eye injury and that he was able to continue the fight, but was getting destroyed and chose not to. With him actually going and posting the medical report, it’s clear as day the injury was legit and this was just a ploy by Sean O’Malley to continue keeping his name out so people like me will write about him.
The fact that O’Malley considers that this should be ruled a victory in his favor instead of how it has been deemed a no contest seems to be an issue. Whether it was intentional or not, there are rules set about this and this injury was 100 percent legit.
What do you think really happened, was the right eye injury by Munhoz bad enough that it forced him to not continue the fight or did he use it as a way to avoid picking up another loss his MMA career on one of the biggest stages of his life? Let us know what you are thinking!
