At UFC Boston on Saturday night, former NFL player Matt Mitrione fought Travis Browne. The referee was Gary Forman, who enjoys what you might characterize as an uneven reputation in New England. Never the less, he was picked to ref a UFC main card fight.
Forman lost control of the fight, and Browne repeatedly stuck his fingers into Mitione’s eyes, without punishment. The result was horrific.
It gets worse.
On top of the eye, members of the Underground speculated that Mitrione also suffered a shoulder injury on the takedown that led to the end of fight fight. Forum member ‘calpolkid’ posted this picture:
And it gets worse.
When an eye becomes swollen, the fighter can no longer see. Then the area is easier to hit, and Mitrione suffered an orbital break.
“Broken orbital floor,” he tweeted. “This and the shoulder happened after the 2nd eye poke. I don’t think they would’ve happened.”
Despite the eye gouges, Mitrione hung incredibly tough, but was overcome in the third round after a pick takedown, losing by technical knockout.
Mitrione now enter free agency on a two-fight losing streak. The officiating in the match was not acceptable.
At the post fight press conference, Browne denied malicious intent.
It’s one of those things where it’s an accident,” he said, as transcribed by Sherdog. “If you watch the fight, it’s not like I’m moving toward him trying to paw at him and poke his eye. Every time he would jump in on me I would try to back up. Third round i think I finally started closing my fist. It’s just part of the game, I guess. There’s no malicious intent behind it.
I don’t think it was something that needed to be a point taken away. I wasn’t moving forward. I wasn’t going after it. That’s why a referee is in there. He warned me on the last time. He’s like, ‘Next time I’m taking a point.’ I did what I could do to not let that happen again. It was an accident. I don’t know what to say.
Update: It was revealed on the latest edition of the MMA Hour that Mitrione will have to undergo surgery to repair the damage done in the fight:
Matt Mitrione is scheduled to undergo surgery on his broken right orbital bone early next week.
Mitrione, who lost in controversial fashion to Travis Browne via TKO on Sunday following two eye pokes, told MMAFighting.com that he is unsure how long he’ll be sidelined for following surgery, however according to Mitrione, the good news is the injury is “non-weight bearing and has significant blood flow.”
Following the loss, the MMA community was split regarding how the apparent accidental fouls should have been handled by referee Gary Forman. Should a point have been taken away? Should it have been ruled a no contest following the second eye poke? Mitrione expressed equal frustration on Tuesday’s episode of The MMA Hour about how the situation was handled.
“It shouldn’t be up to me, the guy who lives his life to compete to make a decision,” he said. “It should be up to the commission, the doctors and the referee to realize the dude is fighting with one eye closed, and he’s complaining about seeing double.
