According to ESPN, Jeremy Stephens suffered a "deep scratch" and "deep bruise" of his left eye during his fight against Yair Rodriguez at UFC Mexico City on Saturday.
The highly anticipated featherweight fight ended in disappointment for fans as the match was
called off and ruled a no contest after just 15 seconds due to the injury. Although referee Herb Dean gave Stephens the full five minutes of allotted time to recover following the accidental eye poke, he was unable to open the eye.
Unhappy with the stoppage, fans littered the Octagon with water bottles and other trash. Rodriguez was also disappointed with the result, but seemed willing to get back in the cage with Stephens or another highly ranked fighter.
Late last night, ESPN MMA posted a video of Stephens, presumably from the hospital, with shades over a heavily bandaged eye. He got directly to the point, calling for a rematch against Rodriguez as soon as possible.
“Yair, you think I’m faking, bro – you’re the one that poked me in the eye,” he said.
“Let’s run it back (in) four or five weeks, two weeks, whatever. I’ll be ready.”
Rodriguez was passionate during his post-fight interview, but never actually questioned the seriousness of Stephens' injury during the post-event media scrum backstage. “I’m just going to wait to talk to the UFC and see what they’re thinking and just move on” Rodriguez said when asked about his next fight and a possible rematch with Stephens.
“I don’t like that one at the end of my record, but whatever.”