“Can’t fake that” Sergio Pettis defends Pedro Munhoz for not continuing after suffering a brutal eye poke at the hands of Sean O’Malley
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Sergio Pettis defends Pedro Munhoz
Pedro Munhoz and Sean O’Malley had one of the more upsetting fights at UFC 276 and in a card that gained the main event so much criticism, that statement is saying something. The opening fight of the main card was stopped in round 2 after an eye-poke from O’Malley lead to the end of the fight due to Pedro being unable to continue.
Immediately after this fans started accusing Pedro of quitting the fight and alleging that the injury wasn’t as serious as he made it seem. During the time the doctor entered the cage to check on his eye as the referee called for a break, Munhoz would say, “All I see is black” promoting the first to be stopped before he took the full 5 minutes to recover
While Sean O’Malley continued to celebrate as the fight was called off it was only when Bruce Buffer read out the decision that it was ruled as a no contest, hence adding another blemish to his supposed “undefeated” record of O’Malley. O’Malley who primarily has a relatively younger fan base further insinuated the idea that Pedro was looking for a way out with the eye poke.
Sergio Pettis defends Pedro Munhoz’ injury against Sean O’Malley
While some fans would rightfully point out that Pedro had no reason to quit that fight as he was ahead on two of the judges scorecards, young O’Malley fans paraded as their piper commanded and started questioning the grit of a professional fighter. While it is easy for anyone outside the steel reinforcements of the octagon to comment on a fighter’s injury, an unintentional eye poke could be just as dangerous and one person who’ll tell you that is Sergio Pettis.
The Bellator Featherweight took to Twitter in defense of his UFC compadre and while he did address the accusations of Pedro faking it, he thought an even more important aspect of the discussion should be the gloves themselves.
Posting a slow-motion footage of the accident he said, ” After further review that shit was bad. Can’t fake that reaction,” claiming that Pedro’s reaction time was too quick to be playing pretend. “If you have never been eye poked while coming forward you can’t relate. Shit hurts bad af,” He said as he questioned anyone who accused Pedro of giving about their level of experience dealing with eye pokes.
He then suggested a major kit update that many MMA pundits have been suggesting the UFC make for years, saying, “Might be time to modify the gloves finally, after years of eye pokes.” As the UFC gloves’ padding isn’t as curved like that of some other organizations, the default position your hand stays in is outright open which naturally leads to more eye pokes as fighters try to find their range.
Trevor Whitman does a detailed breakdown of everything wrong with the UFC’s gloves and how they went untested before they were issued. You can watch it below.
Also Read: Pedro Munhoz reveals he suffered a scratch to his eye following Sean O’Malley eye poke
Also Read: Sean O’Malley hilariously trolls Pedro Munhoz for the way he handled the eye poke at UFC 276
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Jerin Mathew
(713 Articles Published)