Santiago Ponzinibbio defeated Gunnar Nelson on the main event at UFC Glasgow on Saturday night.
In the post fight press conference Nelson felt an eye poke had affected his vision although was quick to say it wasn’t an excuse and that he should have taken time to recover. His coach SBG Ireland’s John Kavanagh released video footage of several apparent eye pokes.
Doubt it was gameplan or intentional but try having depth perception after getting fingers shoved in eyes repeatedly https://t.co/66H6YrTT6T
— Coach Kavanagh (@John_Kavanagh) July 17, 2017
Ponzinibbio has answered back, “I went there to knock him out and thank God it went as expected, I won by knockout,” Ponzinibbio said, per MMA Fighting’s Guilherme Cruz. “If (the eye poke) happened, of course, it wasn’t intentional, but I watched the video again and didn’t see it. I don’t know. But it was a knockout with the right hand that I landed on him. The right hand hurt him and I finished with a precise jab.
“It doesn’t take anything away from the win. What he says doesn’t change anything. There’s a referee inside the Octagon looking at it, and he can stop the fight anytime he wants. The No. 8 in the world lasted 82 seconds. He’s 28, he’s versatile, a great athlete, one of the best in the division, has a bright future in the UFC, will be at the top, but it was an excellent win. (He) lasted 82 seconds.”
What do you think? Did the eye poke affect Nelson? Should they fight again? Could the referee have done better to notice the eye pokes? Should Nelson have brought eye poke to referees attention?