Francisco Rivera will appeal his submission loss to Urijah Faber on Saturday night at UFC 181 to the Nevada State Athletic Commission.
MMA Fighting spoke with Rivera and confirmed the news on Sunday.
Faber, a perennial top contender, had his hands full as Rivera began to gain momentum in the stand-up exchanges early in the second round.
Unfortunately, the competitive bantamweight matchup would be marred by a clear, inadvertent eye poke by Faber. Immediately after the poke, Rivera quickly backed up and clutched at his injured eye in agony, but referee Mario Yamasaki sat back and allowed the fight to continue.
Faber took full advantage of the situation and swarmed on Rivera with multiple unanswered punches before securing a bulldog choke for the stoppage at 1:34 of the second round. A rare chorus of boos echoed throughout the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas for Faber as the replay booth showed the obvious eye poke in slow motion.
During the post-fight press conference, Faber claimed he wasn’t aware of the eye poke until he saw the replay, but he did admit that he got Rivera in the eye and he “wasn’t happy” about it. Rivera came to the decision to take the matter up with the NSAC after having a conversation with his manager, Jason House.
Rivera discussed with MMA Fighting what he was thinking in the Octagon at the time of the incident:
When I felt it, I covered myself. I was trying to tell the ref: ‘My eye! My eye!’ I felt Faber hitting me. I couldn’t see. He was on my left side, and I couldn’t see out of my left eye. … I don’t know what the hell happened. It felt like all his fingers were in my eyes. That’s how bad it is.
An appeal is undoubtedly a long shot despite the obvious nature of the alleged defense. The NSAC rarely overturns outcomes in these kinds of situations.
If the appeal is tossed aside, perhaps Rivera could at least be rewarded with an immediate rematch.
Jordy McElroy is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. He is also the MMA writer for Rocktagon.
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