As we all know last night Anthony Johnson was ahead on the scorecards going into the 3rd round of his fight against Kevin Burns in what was a very entertaining battle; until Johnson was poked in the eye in the 3rd round as Burn's went for what appeared to be a faint and an uppercut combination. Johnson threw his head up in pain and screamed "My Eye", it appeared the uppercut had landed flush on his face and was what caused his eye injury. Johnson immediately fell to the floor in pain, neither Kevin Burns or the referee appeared to know what to do next. The fight was called a Technical Knockout. Upon further replay Burns stuck his hands out straight he left his fingers out and poked Johnson in the eye, many fans considered the eye poke intentional. Johnson had this to say in a interview with Yahoo!sports,
“They didn’t say nothing, about why the fight wasn’t ruled a no contest. Nobody has given me an excuse. The only thing I’ve heard from fans and even the staff of UFC was that it’s bullshit…. All I know I turned around and I was screaming. Honestly, his finger went in my eye. It hurt like hell. I’ve never had that happen before, not that deep at least.”
Burns explained why he threw the punch open handed saying he had used it before as a palm strike and it had broken his hand several times before. I would have to say I would give Burn's the reasonable doubt because there was no indication he is or has a history of pulling dirty manuevers in fights. The fight still should have been called in Johnson's favor by way of disqualification. There is no word yet if Johnson plans to appeal the fight with the Athletic commission.
