Report: Cormier suffered torn cornea from eye poke

Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC

Daniel Cormier reportedly suffered some damage on his cornea after an inadvertent eye poke from Stipe Miocic.

Because of the UFC’s glove design, inadvertent eye pokes are pretty much an occupational hazard. But in some cases, they tend to be a lot more damaging for the fighter on the receiving end of it.

On Saturday night’s headliner at UFC 252, Daniel Cormier ate a hard eye poke from Stipe Miocic towards the end of the third stanza. The former “double-champ” claimed it greatly compromised his vision throughout the last two rounds.

Cormier apparently spoke to ESPN’s Ariel Helwani, revealing he suffered a torn cornea because of the poke.

Some may see Cormier’s supposed disadvantage after the poke and vision impairment as a major contributor for his loss. UFC president Dana White, however, sees it as a non-issue.

“You can’t look at the eye poke and take that away,” White said during the post-fight presser (transcipt by MMA Junkie). “There were two eye pokes – they both got poked in the eye, and that eye was hurt before the poke.

“We’ve got a big group text that goes on, and I was like, ‘There’s something wrong with Cormier’s eye,’ and then he got poked after that. That didn’t help, but they both got poked – you can’t use that as an excuse.

“I think his eye was hurt before the poke and the poke definitely didn’t help. But you can’t look at the poke and say, ‘Oh, the poke.’ Stipe got poked hard, too. They both got poked.”

Reigning champion Stipe Miocic was also left damaged after getting accidentally poked by Cormier during their rematch at UFC 241 in August 2019. A little over a month later, it was revealed that Miocic suffered a “major retina injury,” forcing him to sit out the rest of the year.