Nik Lentz Shows Off Grisly UFC Raleigh Eye Poke Injury

Instagram – Nik Lentz

Nik Lentz did not have a good night on Saturday in Raleigh as he fought to a unanimous decision loss to Arnold Allen in the prelims of UFC on ESPN+ 24.

The featherweight suffered his first set of back to back UFC losses since 2012, and took quite a serious poke to the eye in the process. We had Lentz winning the first round of the fight before Allen began to take things over in the second, accidentally poking Lentz late into the round. No point was deducted.

With Allen surging as it was, it’s hard to know whether Lentz would have been able to do better in the third if he wasn’t dealing with his eye. But there’s no doubt the poke was a pretty big deal. Just look at the end result shared in a video uploaded by Nik following the loss and try to say otherwise.

”Hey everyone, Judges and shits refs aside….. I’m doing alright besides having a few cuts on my cornea from eye gouges,” Lentz wrote in the caption for the video. “Freaking ref didn’t even give me a second. Fought rest of the fight seeing triple.”

“See a specialist in Florida when I get home,” he continued. “Hopefully will not need surgery or anything. Thanks to everyone who supports me. Can’t wait to be home and see my Family and kids.”

MMA continues to suffer from issues dealing with eye pokes, either because refs miss them or don’t deduct points for them even when they cause serious damage. And don’t get me started on the crazy technicalities of the rule which don’t give a fighter time to recover from a poke, lest the referee call the fight off.

Lentz is a longtime UFC veteran who has been competing with the organization since 2009. With the loss to Allen his record slips to 30-11-2 (14-8-1 UFC).