MMA Fighter Devin Powell Suffered a Horrific Eye Hematoma That Could Have Left Him Blind… He Called it the Most Frightening Injury of His Career…
Injuries are part and parcel of combat sports. You’re literally trying to inflict damage on your opponent so cuts and bruises are guaranteed. Sometimes fighters tear ligaments, break bone, or stress parts of their bodies during training. The fight game is a very tough business.
Hematomas are some of the most dramatic injuries in striking sports because of how they swell up people’s faces. Normally they happen because a fighter is taking sustained damage to the face, resulting in ridiculous swelling. It can look very freaky, but normally they’re not as dangerous as they look.
Devin Powell knows all about this type of injury. He was fighting on the Buenos Aires prelims against Jesus Pinedo. It was a very bizarre performance, but now we know why. He was practically fighting blind in one eye for the whole thing.
Damage
Powell explained exactly what happened in a lengthy post on Instagram, which you can see above. He wrote:
“So that the was scariest injury I’ve had in a fight. In the middle of the second round I suffered a hematoma inside my eyeball. My whole right eye filled with blood (as you can see in the photo) making me completely blind in that eye all the way up until I left the hospital that night. No detached retinas, I am always doing a bit better and my foot isn’t broken even though it looks like a giant balloon.
I am very frustrated with the outcome, we game planned for someone who comes straight forward very aggressively but I chased him for 15 minutes except for when I was on my back and he wouldn’t engage on the ground. All we can do is get better and find solutions for these stalling points. @ufc eager for the next one. Let’s go.”
Chased the whole fight but came up short on the cards. Scariest injury I’ve had in a fight. Lost vision completely in my right 👁 halfway into the 2nd. It was a hematoma, the blood now drained(check pic) 🙏 @ufc @danawhite @seanshelby @Mickmaynard2 thanks for the scrap. #🎈foot pic.twitter.com/IEGnfjJmbl
— Devin Powell (@DevinPowellMMA) November 19, 2018
Makes Sense
All of a sudden a bizarre fight between the two men suddenly makes sense. Powell lay on his back for a lot of the fight, waiting for Pinedo to come into his guard. Unsurprisingly Pinedo got the unanimous decision win. Powell might look like a knockoff version of Conor McGregor, but he’s actually a pretty decent fighter in his own right.
It is a truly gruesome looking injury. He’s very lucky not to have suffered a detached retina as Michael Bisping did. The former middleweight champion has had to undergo several surgeries because of continuous problems with one of his eyes.
Dramatic
Normally hematomas look like the one above that happened to Scottish fighter George Mann at a recent ONE event in Jakarta, Indonesia. He was lit up in a Muay Thai fight and practically grew an extra head, on his head. It was a major hematoma that just ballooned.
It’s definitely not a good luck. Hematomas can result in brain damage if they’re not looked after correctly. That’s why it’s so important for referees to intervene if a fight is too one-sided, and protect a fighter from sustaining excessive damage.
