The furious Seattle crowd booed mercilessly after the first UFC event in The Emerald City since 2013 ended controversially.
On Saturday night, the UFC Fight Night main event between rising star Song Yadong and Henry Cejudo came to a bizarre ending after an accidental eye poke in the third round.
After Yadong’s fingers pierced through his left eye, referee Jason Herzog gave Cejudo the obligatory five-minute timeout. The boos began to rain down the Octagon when the former two-division champion decided to maximize the pause.
Despite the clear discomfort, Cejudo survived through the buzzer before calling for his corner to summon the doctor between rounds.
‘I can’t f****** see,’ Cejudo told his coaches. ‘I don’t know what the f*** he’s throwing at me.’
Concluding that Cejudo couldn’t continue into the final rounds, Herzog started the fourth before calling the doctor into the cage and waiving the bout off.
UFC fans in Seattle were furious after a controversial decision ended the night’s main event
‘More than half of the scheduled rounds have been completed, so we go to the scorecards,’ the referee explained to in-cage announcer Bruce Buffer as fans continued to boo.
Herzog also explained to Song’s corner that he ‘either loses this from an incidental foul or I go to the scorecards.’
As a result, Song was given the technical decision with the scores 29-28, 29-28, and 30-27. Despite scoring the biggest victory of his career, Kung Fu Kid brushed off the legitimacy of the win.
‘Sorry that was totally an accident,’ Song addressed the displeased audience. ‘That is not the result I wanted. I am sorry, Henry. He’s a legend, we should run it back. We will fight again. Sorry fans.’
Cejudo, rumored to be retiring after Saturday’s main event, was just as adamant about a rematch as his opponent.
‘We’re about to be brothers, Bisping,’ he joked at commentator Michael Bisping, who lost sight in his right eye during his legendary fight career.
Henry Cejudo suffered a bad eye poke in the third round and was unable to continue fighting
Referee Jason Herzog decided to go to the judges’ scorecards instead of calling a no-contest
‘I couldn’t see out of my left,’ Cejudo continued. ‘My right’s okay. But even that last minute, when he was chasing me, I didn’t know what he was throwing at me.’
‘I wanted to continue, but if I couldn’t see, he’s just gonna hurt me,’ he added. ‘Of course, we can run it back but that f****** finger went in my eye pretty good.’
It was later revealed by the broadcast crew that the fight would have resulted in a no-contest if Cejudo decided to forfeit during the timeout. Nonetheless, the future hall-of-famer took his third straight loss and fifth in his illustrious career.
On the other hand, Song went back to the win column after his loss to Petr Yan in March 2024. The 27-year-old holds a 22-8-1 record in MMA and 11-3-1 in the UFC.
The bitter ending to UFC Seattle came after the prelims spoiled the fans with five knockouts and two submissions, giving the judges an easy night in the office.
Meanwhile, the main card had one knockout and four decisions, including Song’s unfortunate victory.