Jimmie Rivera scored the biggest win of his career this past weekend when he defeated one of the all time greats in Urijah Faber via unanimous decision in what was a one sided affair. He didn’t come out unscathed however as an eye poke courtesy of the ‘California Kid’ in the third round has left him wearing an eye mask and will require recovery. Speaking on this week’s episode of the MMA Hour, Rivera feels there may have been some intent involved.
“Once you get poked, until after I got out and was speaking to (Joe) Rogan, I started getting a little vision back,” said Rivera. “Half down I could see, very, very blurry, and half was black. I don’t know. I think it was a little bit (intentional). I feel like… He hit me in the nuts, and he didn’t really say sorry afterwards. If you hit someone in the balls or poke in the eye you say I’m sorry, my bad, so I don’t know if it was or if it wasn’t (intentional). I don’t really care at this point. I got the W; I got the win over someone that I grew up watching. I grew up watching him as a teenager, as a kid, and it’s unbelievable fighting him.
The night was marred by a referee mistakes, case in point, the fight between Werdum and Browne where Brown suffered a broken finger and the fight should’ve been stopped there awarding Werdum the TKO victory. Rivera feels the referee should’ve done better in his bout with Faber.
“I’m surprised that (the referee) didn’t see because the way (Faber) was throwing that left hand, his fingers were open,” said Rivera. “It was like a slap. It wasn’t a punch, when you usually have your hands closed. It was a slap. He did it once or twice in the previous rounds.”
Fortunately for Rivera his eye injury will not require any surgery and with some eye drops and rest he should be able to recover fairly quickly.
