A glance can’t be an excuse for Daniel Cormier’s loss to UFC 252

LAS VEGAS – Dana White isn’t saying that the look Daniel Cormier received at UFC 252 was the reason for the fight result.

UFC heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic (20-3 MMA, 14-3 UFC) outlasted Cormier in a five-round battle during Saturday’s main event at UFC Apex in Las Vegas, thus ending their historic trilogy.

For Cormier (22-3 MMA, 11-3 UFC), who confirmed he would retire after the fight, the loss had a small asterisk. Cormier was stung in his left eye in the third round resulting in a torn cornea which he said hampered his vision for the remainder of the fight.

But White said both Miocic and Cormier got stung in the eye during the fight and noticed Cormier’s eye may have already been damaged before he got stung.

“You can’t watch the eye sting and take that away. There were two glances – they both stung each other in the eye, and that eye was injured before the hit, ”White told reporters, including MMA Junkie, after UFC 252. “We’ve got a great group text going on, and I was like, ‘Something’s wrong with Cormier’s eye’ and then he got stung after that. It didn’t help, but they both got pushed – you can’t use that as an excuse.

“I think his eye was injured before the hit and the hit really didn’t help. But you can’t look at the poke and say, “Oh, the poke.” Stipe was pushed hard too. They were both stung.

The peeks have been a big story in this heavyweight championship trilogy. Their third fight took almost a year to book. Miocic needed time to recover from his own damaged eye when he was pushed multiple times by Cormier at UFC 241 and feared the same would happen to him again. But it was Cormier who was the target of a seemingly damaging glance this time.

The other narrative was who would emerge as the greatest heavyweight in UFC history, and it was Miocic who was able to do it with his hand raised in the rubber match.

“It was a great fight,” White said. “I got it 2-2 in the last round. It was the fight everyone thought it was going to be, and it was exciting. How tough are these two guys? I mean, both guys got poked in the eye, both guys got rocked. They fought their hearts. It was an incredible heavyweight championship.