Anthony Johnson undergoes eye surgery
July 26, 2008 by Sam Caplan
UFC welterweight Anthony “Rumble” Johnson has undergone surgery as a result of an eye injury sustained against Kevin Burns during their bout at UFC Fight Night 14, MMAWeekly.com is reporting.
Despite taking an obvious illegal finger to the eye, Johnson was declared the loser last Saturday via TKO after he darted to the mat and covered up following the infraction.
Up until the foul, many pundits considered Johnson the likely winner had the bout gone to decision.
“My retina was damaged, possibly detached, and the laceration was pretty long,” Johnson is quoted as telling MMA Weekly’s Mick Hammond. “It was basically from one end of my eye to the other. They did laser surgery that took about two hours, put some stitches on it basically.”
While Johnson has taken the high road throughout the incident, he still believes that Burns shouldn’t be allowed to fight until he gets his injured hand repaired. According to Burns, the reason why he throws his jab with an open palm is because he’s broken it three times in the last sixteen months.
“I told my agent, Ken Pavia, I have nothing against Kevin; but personally I don’t want him to fight again until he gets his hands fixed,” Johnson is quoted as saying. “I don’t want any other fighter to go through what I went through.”
“I don’t think it’s cool that he fought with his hands like that. It put himself and others that he’s competing with in danger. Just look at me. I can accept a loss, but I can’t accept a loss or the consequence of someone else’s wrong doing in a fight like that.”
Johnson indicated that he should be healthy enough to fight again in September or October.
Dang. Just looking at that picture makes my eye hurt.
After this kind of injury and his reaction to it, I must say he is a great sport. He is also a good example of what sportsmanship is in MMA.
I remember when Sugar Ray Leonard career was shorten due to a detained retina, that fight shouldv’e been scored a no-contest..I watched that UFN replay last night and I counted like 5 different times before the last eye poke that stopped the whole thing..the Referee shouldv’e stopped Burns and really warned Burns at his corner, he gave him one warning to take a point away..
That has to be the worst outcome of any MMA fight I’ve ever witnessed. To give Johnson the loss is unthinkable. I recently read an article in which Big John McCarthy stated that the whole reason he resigned as a ref was because he was fed up with these kinds of decisions (though he did not specifically reference this fight in that article). This decision should be overturned.
kevin burns is a fucking faggot. he accepts the win as if he deserved it and he clearly broke the rules by striking with an open hand. eat shit burns
that was pretty weak he didnt ask for a no contest, i wouldnt want a win like that
An absolute travesty that Burns was awarded A TKO WIN !! I can’t believe this story hasn’t been talked about way more than it has. In light of recent fights that had point deductions (Lesnar-Mir, Marquardt-Leites) I can’t believe Burns wasn’t even deducted a point after all of his infractions. This fight was a total shit show and will continue to be until it is declared a no contest or Burns is DQ’d.
##5 your right about the lack of coverage this fight or the story has been “swept under the rug” so to speak..the officials seem like they didn’t know what to do..I also think Johnson may have been ahead in the score cards even though he was tanking at the end of the 2nd round..
I’ll forgive the ref for thinking that Johnson got KO’d by the uppercut, but I’m upset that he didn’t immediately fix his mistake. Even before that, there were so many eye pokes and nothing was done about it. The way Burns looked up after screamed and hit the ground tells me that he knew he had fouled him. The look on his face said, “Shit, I just got DQ’d.”
yeah this does suck and there is nothing that us little people can do except talk about it on forums…i wish there was a place where they could get a consumer response and not just articles about it. so maybe when they hear a bunch of fans judging the quality of the argument they would do something about it.
but other than that, those are professional referees in there and he should have known to give a DQ or a no contest, or even take points away, but nothing was done.
times like this is when you look at the race card…b/c anyone knows that if chuck liddell would have gotten hit like that they would have put it in his favor you know? ‘rumble’ is the truth and they screwed him…BIG TIME!
This is reeedickulous! I hope they overturn this obvious mistake in awarding Burns the TKO victory.
Fix this bs! Seriously overturning a decision like this will set a precedent that should have been set before burns even entered the damn ring. I know Dana and crew care so much more about strategy for growing the brand, but this is seriously bullshit. I honestly think Johnson has potential to be a great fighter from watching his first fight in the UFC, and I was not a fan but I was intruiged by his potential and reminded myself to see what would develop. A setback like this can cost much more than a loss would. Just fix the damn thing and give him the win bonus
#7, you’re absolutely right. He looked over at the ref like he expected to be grabbed and shoved into a corner and either DQ’d or at least Johnson to get his five minutes.
You know, it would be a travesty if Johnson keeps the loss — but if the rules state that a ref can’t change his decision before the final call, from a TKO to DQ, then those are the rules. But it would be even more of a tragedy if they don’t change that rule for situations such as this one. If you’ve going to fuck up this badly, then do SOMETHING about it.
Hope Steve Mazagatti reads this story. The Lesnar/Mir fight was another bs call by Mazzi. I hope the decision gets overturned because this sport needs that call right now in light of shady judges, refs, and rules. The fans are starting to question a lot lately.
@14: How can you say that Lesnar/Mir was a bs call? When fighters punch as hard as Lesnar, they often don’t get warnings, as they have too much power to let those shots slide. Lesnar committed an infraction and was correctly penalized.
unbelievable, that was a close fight, but Rumble was ahead on my score card. the loss is just terrible. Pure class on Rumble’s part. I have to say Im even more a fan of his now
Hey Sam you ever get to the bottom of the open hand strike being a deadly, banned weapon? Or is it going to be swept under the carpet like this BS decision?
oh my goodness!
that’s horrible.
[...] undergoes eye surgery Mazzagatti was so freakin’ clueless. Five Ounces of Pain | Anthony Johnson undergoes eye surgery [...]
Not to mention that open handed strikes are illegal. Why no hate about that? That would be 2 infractions per eye gouge; one for the open hand and the other for the gouge. Can’t wait to see if the commission overturns the Burns victory.
@#21 Huh? Open-handed strikes aren’t illegal, bro. Why would they be? Hell, in Pancrase they are the ONLY hand strikes you can throw and it’s never been a safety issue, in fact closed-fist strikes are disallowed because they are MORE dangerous.
Here is the UFC foul list if you need a refresher:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultimate_Fighting_Championship#Fouls
oh geez. that last at #20.