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Yair Rodriguez gives Jeremy Stephens ‘benefit of the doubt’ on eye poke, ‘sad’ how fight ended

Yair Rodriguez was understandably upset following the end of his main event fight against Jeremy Stephens after an inadvertent eye-poke brought a stop to the contest just 15 seconds into the opening round.

The bout was declared a no-contest after Stephens was unable to open his eye. The crowd at the Mexico City Arena showered the Octagon with trash after a disappointing end to the night.

Rodriguez can’t say for certain how Stephens was feeling in that moment. But he’s going to defer to his opponent when it comes to his inability to continue following the eye-poke during the opening exchange.