Henry Cejudo vs. Song Yadong Ends in Controversy After ‘Triple C’ Suffers Gruesome Eye Poke – UFC Seattle Highlights
Song Yadong scored the biggest win of his MMA career against Henry Cejudo at UFC Seattle, but it came with a healthy dose of controversy.
Through more than two-and-a-half rounds, Song and Cejudo delivered an entertaining scrap that saw the two bantamweight stars landing big shots on one another. However, things took a turn for the worse with just over a minute left in the third when Song inadvertently poked ‘Triple C’ in the eye.
Replay showed that it was an especially bad eye poke that prompted Cejudo to take the full five minutes of rest time before resuming the fight. Cejudo stayed elusive through the remainder of the round, clearly just trying to get back to his corner.
Once Cejudo made it to his stool, he immediately told his corner that he couldn’t see out of his left eye and asked for the cageside physician to come in and check. With Cejudo explaining that he can’t see, referee Jason Herzog explained to both fighters that he would begin the fourth round and then immediately bring it to a pause which would allow him to send the five-round fight to the scorecards earlier than expected.
Technically, Herzog did not need to start the fourth round. Regardless, the fight was called off and we went to the scorecards which revealed Song Yadong as the winner.
Official Result: Song Yadong def. Henry Cejudo via technical decision (29-28, 29-28, 30-27)
Interestingly, if Cejudo had opted to bow out of the fight with time still left in the third round, the fight would have been ruled a no-contest. By finishing the third round, that is what allowed Herzog to go to the scorecards and hand ‘Triple C’ his third straight loss.
