Sean O'Malley says Pedro Munhoz '100 percent' looked for way out at UFC 276

LAS VEGAS – Sean O'Malley thinks Pedro Munhoz looked for a way out Saturday at UFC 276.

In the event’s main card opener, the two bantamweights fought to a no contest at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The bout ended when O’Malley inadvertently eye-poked Munhoz midway through Round 2. The foul rendered Munhoz unable to continue.

“When it happened I was like, ‘OK, it didn’t feel like it was bad.’ I thought we were going to be fighting in 20 seconds,” O’Malley told MMA Junkie and other reporters at a post-fight news conference. “I didn’t think the fight was going to be stopped. I was dominating that fight. I checked every one of his leg kicks. I could feel his shins cracking. Every time he’d throw a kick, I’d check it and I could tell it would hurt him. I didn’t get hit one time. I was dominating that fight. I was piecing him up. I was finding my range. It sucked.”

The unfortunate result caused some viewers to criticize Munhoz, who immediately told referee Jason Herzog and the cage-side physician he couldn’t see out of his right eye after the foul. Some said he wanted out. When I fighter says all they can see is black, the bout is usually stopped – as this one was. The physician also told Herzog there was damage to the eye.

“100 percent (he wanted out) that’s what’s going on in my mind,” O’Malley said. “I’ll have to rewatch it. I was piecing him up. I didn’t get hit once. He came in there and said, ‘I’m going to kick his legs and try to take him down.’ He tried kicking my legs and it damaged him more. He couldn’t get me up against the fence. He couldn’t take me down. I was dominating that fight.”

Since the fight ended midway through the second round, the only scorecards turned in were for Round 1. Despite his assessment of how things were going in his own mind, O’Malley was baffled to hear two of the three judges on assignment scored Round 1 in favor of Munhoz.

“Have those judges kick me and I’ll check their kick,” O’Malley said. “They’ll be like, ‘Oh, OK. That hurts.’ That’s a strike for me. That hurt Pedro. Every time he’d kick me and I’d check it, that hurt him. For those judges to say they’d score it for him, they’re completely stupid. Literally, just stupid.”