Daniel Cormier suffered torn cornea in UFC 252 loss to Stipe Miocic

Daniel Cormier suffered a torn cornea in his UFC 252 loss to the promotion’s reigning heavyweight champion, Stipe Miocic.

Cormier and Miocic collided in the card’s main event, with ambitions to settle a 1-1 tie across their two previous fights. In the end, Miocic won the fight by unanimous decision, but the outcome was not without controversy.

Mid-way through the fight, Miocic landed an inadvertent but grievous eye-poke that Cormier later revealed completely destroyed his vision in his left eye. Unfortunately, referee Marc Goddard also missed the unintentional foul, which meant Cormier was unable to take a break to recover, and Miocic was not penalized.

As it turns out, the eye-poke was every bit as severe as Cormier led us to believe post-fight. According to ESPN’s Ariel Helwani, the former two-division champion suffered a torn cornea in the fight.

Daniel Cormier suffered a torn cornea last night, Cormier told me this morning. No timetable yet for recovery. Doctors said he won’t need surgery just yet but they have to monitor how it heals before knowing for sure. He was discharged from the hospital late Saturday night.

— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) August 16, 2020

“Daniel Cormier suffered a torn cornea last night, Cormier told me this morning. No timetable yet for recovery. Doctors said he won’t need surgery just yet but they have to monitor how it heals before knowing for sure. He was discharged from the hospital late Saturday night.”

Speaking at the conclusion of his fight with Miocic, which marked the final fight of his illustrious career, Cormier opened up on the affect this eye-poke had on him.

” I mean f—, look at my eye. I couldn’t see the rest of the fight. I can’t see anything out of my left eye. It’s black.”@dc_mma says he was unable to see after being poked in the eye by Stipe Miocic in the third round at #UFC252 pic.twitter.com/tC7bDDMjZL

— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) August 16, 2020

“I mean f**k, look at my eye,” Cormier said in his post-fight interview with Joe Rogan. “I couldn’t see for the rest of the fight. I can’t see anything out of my left eye. It’s black.”