UFC 277 screw up: Sketchy doctor fails to acknowledge clearly compromised eye

Benny A. King

UFC 277 was an interesting card. Despite the lack of marketability from the main event, there was plenty of interesting things happening. There was a show off backfiring, baked Rogan, the liver kick KO and of course a face entirely painted red by strikes.

But one thing happening that flew under the radar was on one of the prelims.

Matthew Semelsberger had his eye be clearly compromised during a bout against Alex Morono. In between rounds, Semelsberger was given an eye check. Eye check that he blatantly faked his way through and the bout was allowed to continue despite his inability to see out of the eye all but certainly.

One commenter writes:

“You can clearly hear his corner telling him the numbers on the broadcast. You can also see his right eye looking past the Doctors poorly placed hand to cover the eye. What a s*it show, his eye was shut”

“As an optometrist, I am laughing my ass off at the effort in this visual field test. Pretty bad on that doctor to allow it to continue though.” – another noted.

Semelsberger and Morono went into it on two win streaks respectively. In round two Semelsberger eye was clearly compromised despite of backing up Morono and even being on top.

In round 3 the action significantly slowed down despite of Semelsberger’s corner urging him for action. Lack of response from him allowed for Morono to recover and edge out the bout. Final result?
Alex Morono def. Matthew Semelsberger via Unanimous Decision (29-28, 29-28, 30-27)

Semelsberger shared on social media afterwards:

“This way of life will always be about becoming a better person, and a better warrior in this short time on earth that we all got. I got a lot to work on from a technical sense, but I’ll always give you all my heart and soul when I step foot in that cage.”

“Respect to Alex, I learned a lot from an experienced veteran and a great”

“A lot ppl say they will be back better than ever but from the deepest depths of my soul… I will be back better than anyone, even myself, could ever imagine.”

” Much love to my teammates @crazy88mma for getting me ready to go to war, much love to my family & friends for your unconditional love, and thank you to all the @ufc fans around the world who tuned in to watch me work. Ima let this eye heal up and then I’m back to work. Still mad young in my career so it’s only up from here baby.”