When heading into any UFC event, the main event is the one that grabs all the attention. It's the quality of the main event that the card is often remembered by. So, when the headlining fight goes off the rails, there tends to be negative reactions towards the entire show.
When the UFC Mexico crowd filed into the stadium, they were happy knowing that they would be able to see Jeremy Stephens headline the night with Yair Rodriguez. Rodriguez's return to the Octagon was a tremendous deal, having finished his last fight against 'The Korean Zombie' Chan Sung Jung with the most spectacular last-second upward elbow.
Unfortunately, the crowd would not be getting what they wanted, as, at the end of the night, the main event was called off by Herb Dean.
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UFC Mexico main event ends after an eye poke
In what has to be the most unfortunate course of events, within 15 seconds of the start of the main event, Herb Dean had to separate the fighters. Yair Rodriguez's flailing hand had accidentally poked his opponent in the eye.
While this was definitely something unfortunate, given the number of fights which are paused due to eye pokes, the Mexican crowd were not worried, waiting for the fight to resume. However this time, that was not the case.
Herb Dean waited the full five minutes after calling in a doctor and pausing the fight. Unfortunately, Jeremy Stephens could not open his eye again.
The referee had the unenviable task of making a decision when the fight did not resume in the five minutes that are allotted to the fighter after such an incident and called the fight.
The crowd were naturally disappointed and expressed their displeasure by throwing bottles into the Octagon. Thankfully no one was hurt and during the post-fight interview, Rodriguez said that he would like to face Stephens again as soon as it was possible in a rematch.
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