Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone suffered one of the most startling swollen eyes we’ve seen after making the mistake of blowing his nose against Tony Ferguson.
The UFC veteran had been repeatedly punched to his face in the scrap between lightweight contenders, but forgot a rule all fighters are taught about resisting the urge to clear your nostrils when they’re full of blood and effecting your breathing.
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“There is a communication between the eye — specifically the lacrimal ducts — and the nose,” ringside physician Yared Vasquez explained on YouTube. “All that blood volume from the strikes instantly took another route and filled up the surrounding tissues around the eye in the orbital space — rendering that eye effectively closed for the night.”
The speed of the swelling was startling and left Cerrone clawing at his eye in mild panic. It forced the doctor to call off proceedings and left the fourth-ranked 155-pounder apologising in the cage. “I’m so sorry. I don’t quit. I don’t back down,” Cerrone said.
“Man, I just wanted to keep fighting … I shouldn’t have blown my nose. I’m a veteran, I’m old school, and I should’ve known that. But I did, and I humbly couldn’t finish the fight, and I apologise.”
Cerrone later joked about his appearance on Instagram with a picture comparing himself to a cartoon character.
Ferguson was booed by confused fans who thought a late blow he’d delivered well after the buzzer sounded for the end of the second round had caused the damage.
But Cerrone calmed the throng and Ferguson said he was open to a rematch.
“It’s not how I wanted the fight to go,” Ferguson said after the fight was finished. “It was a really emotional year. It’s a f***ing fight in here. A lot of emotions flaring. There’s no words to express it. I don’t like to win that way. “We can throw it back, I don’t mind doing that. He’s a hell of a f***ing fighter.”
But he was confident the final five minutes wouldn’t have changed much after he took control of proceedings in the second round.
“Going into the third round, I don’t think it would have been any different,” Ferguson said at the UFC 238 post-fight press conference. “I was going to pick him apart with jabs, I was going to hit him to the body. Literally I just saw his nose go from red to clear from red to clear from all the shots.”
Cerrone was still looking extremely puffy — but smiling — after being taken to hospital for treatment of a broken orbital bone.
He’ll likely be out a while, but Ferguson is eyeing a title shot after securing his 12th straight win. The American looked forward to a bout with the winner of champion Khabib Nurmagomedov’s September clash with Dustin Poirier — or Conor McGregor.
“If Dustin Poirier don’t do it, I’m going to do it,” Ferguson said. “Tiramisu (Khabib) needs an ass-whooping. He needs two to the stomach from me. If it’s McNuggets (McGregor) for a money fight or whatever — he’s an athlete, too. I know the division misses him inside here. I’m pretty sure he misses the fight game, too.
“I want to keep winning. What sounds better than 12? 13 — but it sounds a hell of a lot better with a title shot in that 13th victory.”
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