Whether it was meant or not only Chad Mendes knows but what we’re certain of is that this eye poke/gouge would have hurt an awful lot.
With fighters jockeying for position on the mat and Mendes furiously working to move to a superior position, it’s hard to say definitively that Money was fighting dirty because he’s never been that type of competitor in the past.
Oftentimes you’ll see wrestlers attempt to cover the mouths of their opponents on the ground so as to wear on their cardio so it’s unclear whether the Team Alpha Male fighter was trying to do that and missed.
But this camera angle of the exchange does seem to show the American fighter dig his index finger into the eye of the Irishman which appears to have exacerbated the cut that The Notorious suffered to his right eye in the first round.
The foul went unpunished by referee Herb Dean who just warned Mendes about his fingers and didn’t matter in the overall scheme of the fight as McGregor did leave the octagon with the UFC interim featherweight title around his waist.
We’re all for giving fighters the benefit of the doubt so we’re going to go for accidental on this one.
https://youtu.be/sI6mf1JbP7U
H/t to RChekoCONOR
