‘Alpha’ feared the worst when she exited the Octagon seven years ago today.
The UFC closed out its 2025 schedule on December 13 but used to stage events right up until the end of each calendar year.
On this day, December 29, in 2018, the promotion staged one final card at The Forum in Inglewood, California, before the new year — and it was certainly not short on fireworks.
After Amanda Nunes knocked out Cris Cyborg in the UFC 232 co-headliner, Jon Jones defeated Alexander Gustafsson for a second time in the main event.
While the two UFC GOATs celebrated their triumphs, another prominent fighter had a much less successful night…
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Cat Zingano suffered brutal eye injury after just 61 seconds at UFC 232
Before an electric main card that also featured Alexander Volkanovski’s knockout of Chad Mendes, former women’s bantamweight title challenger Cat Zingano was among those returning on the prelims.
That fight turned out to be her last in the UFC, and she went out in a painful way.
Against Megan Anderson at featherweight, Zingano suffered an eye injury at UFC 232 as a result of a head kick. The Australian caught ‘Alpha’ in the eye and cut open her eyelid.
The bout was waved off after just 61 seconds, but Zingano’s focus was on something other than the result. It was on the status of her eye, which she feared losing.
“My depth perception’s off a bit and my dexterity’s off a bit, but again, it’s been improving,” Zingano told reporters a couple of months later at a UFC event in Phoenix. “It’s definitely not what it was a month ago.
“I thought I lost my eye. I thought if I opened my eye, that it was going to spill out onto my face and I didn’t want to open it in the cage.
“I’ve never felt pain like that in my life,” she continued. “I’ve dislocated my jaw, I’ve torn up all my fingers, broken ribs — that was nothing compared to what it felt like to get (cut) in the eye.
“I’ve never felt pain like that.”
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What’s the worst injury you’ve seen in a UFC fight?
Let us know in the comments which injury inside the Octagon was the hardest to watch.
Tom Aspinall reveals two surgeries to repair his damaged eyes
Eye damage is coincidentally a big topic in the MMA world right now after the events that unfolded in the one and only heavyweight title fight of 2025.
Ciryl Gane poked Tom Aspinall in the eyes at UFC 321, resulting in their main event ending in a no-contest. Since then, the English champion has been providing updates on his recovery after revealing the significant damage he is suffering from.
The latest news came in a YouTube video, during which Aspinall revealed he will require surgery on both eyes before returning to UFC action.
“By the time this is going out, I will have probably had surgery on one side already,” Aspinall said.
“The next surgery is coming mid-January. So, we are working towards getting back. That’s the plan,” he added.
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