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Cat Zingano has eye issues following toe-poke TKO loss, may appeal result

Liz Roscher
·Staff writer
Cat Zingano lost her fight with Megan Anderson when Anderson’s toe poked Zingano in the eye during a first round high kick. (Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)
Cat Zingano lost her fight with Megan Anderson when Anderson’s toe poked Zingano in the eye during a first round high kick. (Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)

One of the weirder things to happen at UFC 232 was the conclusion of the featherweight fight between Cat Zingano and Megan Anderson. After a single minute of fighting, Anderson unleashed a high kick on Zingano. As Zingano turned her head to avoid the foot, Anderson’s big toe poked her in the eye. Zingano needed medical attention, and the match was declared a technical knockout in favor of Anderson.

It was a bizarre and unfortunate way for Zingano to lose. And while the injury seemed superficial at the time (immediately following the fight she was treated for an eyelid laceration), Zingano told ESPN that Anderson’s toe-poke caused more damage than she originally thought.

“I have a damaged iris, damaged retina, hemorrhage in the back of my eye, increased globe pressure and of course the laceration,” Zingano told ESPN’s Ariel Helwani. “They want me back at the doctor every three to four days to make sure there’s no detachment on the retina.

“Right now, they have to keep it dilated and on steroids for the next two weeks to keep the pressure down.”

Yikes. Zingano also told ESPN that she’s considering an appeal, even though Anderson’s kick was legal under the rules of the California Athletic Commission. It wasn’t an intentional eye-gouge, and it didn’t involve outstretched fingers. Those two interactions with the eye are considered fouls, but not a toe to the eye. Considering the nature of the injury and how it happened, there’s at least a small chance that Zingano could get the result of the fight overturned if she chooses to appeal.

For her part, Anderson is standing by her first UFC win, but has publicly offered Zingano a rematch several times since the end of the fight.

View this post on Instagram

A win is a win. Not how we wanted it to go but we're just doing our job. ▪ All well wishes to Cat and hope she is ok. Like I said post fight, more than happy to give it to her again if that's what she wants. ▪ A huge thank you to my coaches (@thejameskrause, @coachmarcmontoya, @trey_ogden) and team. This camp has been the hardest I have ever done and the last six months has seen some of the most drastic changes and improvements in my game than I ever have before. We grinded every single day with the intent to be the best and although I wasn't able to show a lot of that last night, I know, and my team knows the sacrifices and hard work that has made me a better martial artist today. ▪ Thank you all for the kind words and support throughout the week and thank you to those who have stuck by me from the beginning. I see it all and I'm humbled 🙏🏻 ▪ Onwards to 2019 and to building the Featherweight division!!

A post shared by Megan Anderson (@megana_mma) on Dec 30, 2018 at 5:56pm PST

Zingano needs her eye to heal completely before she can even consider facing Anderson or anyone else. But given how the fight ended and Zingano’s possible appeal, we may see Zingano and Anderson face off in 2019.

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