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.
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.
"Oh my god this looks like a bad one," said commentator and former middleweight champion Michael Bisping.
"There's no faking that, you can see the pain, and his eye. Let me tell you, the pain is like nothing else."
Former heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier called it the 'worst case scenario' for both fighters.
"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.
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 clearly emotional Muhammad was downed for several minutes, with the uncomfortable silence of an empty arena only accentuating his cries of pain.
"I can't see anything, holy shit," he said at one point.
Edwards apologised and the two men embraced briefly as referee Herb Dean ruled the bout a no contest.
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.
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