The human face is not designed to be punched. The most common serious facial injury in combat sports is of course a broken nose and cuts and abrasions are common as well. Although less common, but interestingly enough not too uncommon is a break of the eye orbital.
The eye orbit is the cavity of socket of the skull in which the eye sits. It is made up of seven distinct bones and a fracture in any of them is generally referred to as a break in the eye orbital.
These fives UFC fighters had the misfortune of being punched so hard in the face that they suffered an eye orbital break.
5) Joe Proctor
In only his second fight in the Octagon, UFC lightweight Joe Proctor battled five hard rounds with Ramsey Nijem, but lost a decision.
Early in the first round Proctor took a front kick that knocked him down, but he fought through it and the two put on a back and forth affair.
Sometimes a broken eye orbital can result in massive swelling around the eye, but in Proctor’s case the eye did not swell. It did require him to sit on the shelf for almost 14 months until his next fight.
4) Eddie Alvarez
At UFC 188, Eddie Alvarez fought former Strikeforce champion Gilbert Melendez and in the first round Melendez landed a perfect elbow that broke Alvarez’s nose and eye orbital. Alvarez spent the rest of the fight with blurred vision after blowing his nose, which caused his eye to swell.
Despite the injury, Alvarez hung in the fight and was able to do enough to earn a split decision win.
3) Anthony Pettis
Former champion Anthony Pettis had looked nearly unbeatable in his five fights prior to battling Rafael Dos Anjos at UFC 185 for the lightweight title.
But it was Dos Anjos who looked unstoppable during the fight, landing huge punches off the bat and landing takedowns throughout the fight. Pettis fought hard, but ultimately does Anjos won a decision and the UFC title.
Pettis showed his incredible toughness, fighting through multiple facial lacerations and a broken eye orbital.
2) Josh Koscheck
Ultimate Fighter Season 1 alumni Josh Koscheck winning twelve of his seventeen fights and earned a title fight against champion Georges St-Pierre at UFC 124 after putting together a three fight win streak in 2009.
Almost immediately in the fight, GSP started landing a hard jab and doing damage to Koscheck. St-Pierre dominated the fight by landing his jab at will and using it to setup his takedowns.
For his effort, Koscheck suffered a broken eye orbital and was actually left stranded on the east coast until the swelling subsided and he could see a surgeon. Koscheck needed to be driving from Montreal to Boston to undergo surgery before he could return home.
Koscheck posted this picture of his eye 36 hours after the fight:
1) Matt Mitrione
Matt Mitrione fought Travis Browne at a UFC Fight Night in Boston and although he did suffer several eye pokes, it was a punch that left him with this gruesome hematoma from an eye orbital break.
