Which UFC fighter sustained serious eye injury at UFC Vegas 18

UFC welterweight fighter Justin Jaynes suffered a nasty under-eye injury in the preliminary card of UFC Vegas 18.

Justin Jaynes, who has one victory and two defeats last year in UFC, stepped in to fight Devonte Smith on a very short notice. The original opponent of Smith, Alex da Silva, had to pull out of the card owing to a knee injury less than a week ago. It was among a number of originally scheduled fights on the fight card that were cancelled.

Newcomer Justin Jaynes agreed to step in, but the bout was set to take place at 160 lbs.

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What happened in Devonte Smith vs. Justin Jaynes at UFC Vegas 18

Devonte Smith putting a submission attempt on Justin Jaynes

The first round of Devonte Smith vs. Justin Jaynes went smoothly, with both of them trading strikes. However, the eye damage occurred in the second round when Smith had Jaynes down on the canvas. From side control, Smith worked on his opponent's face, landing one short elbow after another.

One unsuccessful submission move later, Devonte Smith stood back up and the referee Keith Peterson allowed Justin Jaynes a couple of seconds to be back on his feet as well.

However, the referee called for a timeout immediately after signaling the fighters to restart. A cage-side physician was called in to examine a huge and nasty-looking purple-blue swelling under Justin Jaynes' eyes. It took the doctor only a few seconds to determine that he could not be allowed to continue fighting.

The bout was called off, giving Devonte Smith the win via doctor's stoppage TKO.

😳😳😳Our featured prelim is called after swelling on Justin Jaynes's eye. #UFCVegas18 pic.twitter.com/8HrtyXZmSI

— UFC (@ufc) February 7, 2021

With this defeat, Justin Jaynes is now on a three-fight losing streak. He has not won a bout since picking up a TKO victory over Frank Camacho on his UFC debut. Devonte Smith, on the other hand, has bounced back well from the August 2019 loss to Khama Worthy at UFC 241. He now has four wins in UFC, including one on Dana White's Contender Series, Season 2.

BACK WITH A DUB! 💥#UFCVegas18 pic.twitter.com/aLiBgHngkC

— UFC (@ufc) February 7, 2021

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