PARIS – Jacqueline Cavalcanti got fouled in a way never seen before in the UFC.
The women’s bantamweight fighter got accidentally eye poked in both her eyes by her opponent Zarah Fairn in the opening bout of UFC Fight Night 226, which took place this Saturday. The odd thing is that it wasn’t two separate eye pokes. Instead, it was one motion with two fingers poking both eyes separately.
“Actually it was two fingers, not one, so one in each eye,” Cavalcanti said when asked about the accidental eye poke at the UFC Fight Night 226 post-fight press conference. “One of the eyes got really affected, so I had to stop. Thank God, they stopped it so I could recover, and I could continue to go after my win.”
As soon as the foul happened, the referee stopped the bout and gave Cavalcanti (6-1 MMA, 1-0 UFC) time to recover. She would eventually clear her sight and return to outpoint Fairn (6-6 MMA, 0-4 UFC) and win a unanimous decision against the Frenchwoman.
UFC Fight Night 226 marked Cavalcanti’s debut with the promotion.
You can watch her full scrum in the video above.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC Fight Night 226.
