Niko Price rushed to hospital to receive stitches on gruesome eye injury and possible fracture after UFC 249 loss
NIKO PRICE was rushed to hospital with a gruesome eye injury that required multiple stitches after suffering yet another defeat to rival Vicente Luque. The welterweight was left with a suspected fracture to his right eye socket in the brawl. NIKO PRICE'S EYE ???? Stream #UFC249 on ESPN+ ➡️ https://t.co/uIC7AqOEfU pic.twitter.com/xkMcLSDv7t — ESPN (@espn) May […]
NIKO PRICE was rushed to hospital with a gruesome eye injury that required multiple stitches after suffering yet another defeat to rival Vicente Luque.
The welterweight was left with a suspected fracture to his right eye socket in the brawl.
NIKO PRICE'S EYE
Stream #UFC249 on ESPN+
https://t.co/uIC7AqOEfU pic.twitter.com/xkMcLSDv7t
— ESPN (@espn) May 10, 2020
The fight between the two was ended during the third round due to Price’s eye being swollen shut and looking nasty with a huge cut.
Doctors immediately inspected Price’s eye, which was swollen and bloody.
They decided he could not see out of it and stopped the fight.
The ring official stopped the fight at 3:37 of the third round, awarding a victory by TKO to Luque.
He was still in good spirits and hugged and congratulated Luque on the win.
He was rushed to a local hospital in Jacksonville, Florida, for checks.
Price and Luque opened the undercard at an empty Vystar Veterans Memorial Arena, as UFC became the first professional sports to return amid the coronavirus pandemic in the USA.
The punches were flying from the off with both mixing in leg kicks.
Luque was getting the better of his opponent and landed several straight punches clean, but Price fired back with a combo of his own, mixing a knee and then a takedown.
He then attempted a d’arce choke but Luque broke free and was able to rock his foe at the end of the first.
Luque landed a hard left in the second until the fight was stopped as he also connected with an accidental kick below the belt.
Once action resumed he hit a one-two combo as his kicks continued to beat down Price.
But the brave Price pushed forward, landing a couple of nice elbows, but his revival was short lived.
He slipped when attempting a head kick and that allowed Luque to take control at the climax of the second with a number of leg shots.
Price came out on the front foot in the third as he knew he was trailing on the scorecards, but he was soon caught by another heavy combination.
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And Luque then landed a big left that sent him falling backwards.
He pounced on top of the stricken Price but ate some elbows before the referee paused the fight for the doc to intervene.
And after seeing Price’s eye was completely shut, he decided that he could not allow the warrior to continue for the final 90 seconds. Afterwards, Price told Luque: “I think you got my orbital.”
Luque said: “I definitely think that I’ve gotten better since my last fight and that I’m still here. I’m still here to be relevant and get up that division and eventually fight for that title.
“I still have a lot to improve, I’m 28 years old, I’m excited for this and I’m excited for how much I have to improve. I was not able to show everything I’ve improved because Niko is an awkward guy and he came in hard and tried to take me out and brought different situations, but at the same time I felt happy with my performance.
“And considering how everything went for this camp, it wasn’t the ideal camp with everything going on, but I feel good and I had fun in there.”