OUCH!

It has been three days since UFC Vegas 103, where Top 15 ranked Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Flyweight Asu Almabayev was stopped by top contender Manel Kape via technical knockout (TKO) from inside the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada (watch highlights).

While Kape looked absolutely amazing in his stoppage win, the victory was barred with controversy. “Starboy” scrapped Almabayev’s eye a few seconds before the stoppage, and the referee completely missed it.

Today (Tues., March 4, 2025), a picture of Almbayev’s eye has surfaced, and the damage is very visible.

Check out his eye post UFC Vegas 103 below:

For the second straight week, a UFC main event was plagued by the dreaded eye poke. UFC Seattle’s main event loser, Henry Cejudo, could not continue after Song Yadong logged his finger into “Triple C’s” eye socket.

Still pissed off by the result of his fight, Cejudo posted on social media immediately after UFC Vegas 103 by writing, “Eye pokes are the greatest threat to the growth of this sport (unbiased).”

Unfortunately, eye pokes have not gone away in the 32 years that UFC has existed, and it looks like they will stay forever…unless referees actually enforce the penalties for eye pokes.

For what it’s worth, Almabayev (21-3) had his 17-fight win streak snapped this past weekend.

To checkout UFC’s upcoming schedule of events click here.

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