Top bantamweight contender Pedro Munhoz received an apology from Sean O’Malley for the eye poke during their most recent fight at UFC 276.
Pedro faced O’Malley this past Saturday in a match. Munhoz seemed to be in charge and ahead on the judges’ scorecards for the whole of the bout, despite the fact that it was close.
The bout was ultimately stopped in Round 2 after the following took place:
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To make matters worse, Sean O’Malley did his signature basketball hoop shoot to celebrate the fight being called off – which frankly just felt out of place considering he had arguably lost Round 1.
Munhoz vs. O'Malley ruled a no contest after an unintentional eye poke. #UFC276 pic.twitter.com/Mfda0tF640
— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) July 3, 2022
Munhoz had delivered 26 leg kicks in Round 1 – using the tactic that rendered O’Malley useless against Chito Vera to neutralize the threat. The leg kicks were largely unanswered by O’Malley.
When the eye poke happened, Munhoz was immediately affected as can be seen in the video above. But despite the high def footage of the incident available, O’Malley and some of his fans have an alternate version kind of akin to his alternate universe in which he’s undefeated.
At the press conference after the bout O’Malley shared he ‘believed Munhoz was looking for a way out’:
“I was piecing him up, I didn’t get hit once.”
“He came in there and said ‘I’m going to kick his legs and take him down’, he tried kicking my legs and it damaged him more.”
“He couldn’t get me up against the fence and couldn’t take me down.”
“I was dominating that fight.”
O’Malley subsequently shared the following on his Instagram story.
Pedro Munhoz discussed his most recent fight with Sean during his interview on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani. Munhoz denied that O’Malley poked him on purpose when asked whether he thought that was the case.
“He didn’t do it on purpose. But also, a lot of his actions after the fight were things that I don’t think is right based on my values.”
“He came and apologized to me and then he made a video on TikTok making fun of my video. So you apologize to me for poking me (in the eye) because he realized it. “
“He came up to me and said, ‘I didn’t mean to poke you in the eye.’ I say, ‘I know you didn’t mean to poke me in the eye, we can run this back anytime.’ He said, ‘you’re a legend’.”
“There was something that happened in my eye that you poked accidentally but then you go make fun, that’s kinda like the things that I tell my kids not to do. You say one thing and then you go make fun on the other hand.”