UFC welterweight contender Gunnar Nelson claims an eye poke led to his recent knockout loss.
On Sunday, at UFC Fight Night in Glasgow, Scotland, Nelson was knocked out by Santiago Ponzinibbio early in the first round.
“I don’t like to make excuses, but this is the truth, how I feel anyway, is I should have stopped the fight when I got poked,” Nelson said. “I should have stopped it then because I’m seeing two Ponzinibbios in front of me. And that was like that until I remember standing up and the fight was over.”
Nelson went on to give Ponzinibbio credit for his impressive win, but Nelson believes he should have done something to tell the referee to stop the fight after the alleged eye poke.
“I should have stopped it then and I’m not saying, like, he did a good job and maybe it would have happened anyway,” Nelson said. “Maybe my reflexes just wouldn’t have been enough to move away from the punch, but this is how I felt, like, I’m kind of kicking myself in the head for not just stopping the fight and being greedy because I caught him and I thought he was on the run.”
