UFC Fight Night 190 results: Andre Fili's eye poke cuts fight with Daniel Pineda short

Andre Fili looked better than ever until a critical accidental foul took a likely victory away against Daniel Pineda at UFC Fight Night 190.

Fili (21-8 MMA, 9-7 UFC) was putting punishing combinations on Pineda (27-14 MMA, 4-5 UFC) and nearly got the knockout in the opening round of their featherweight fight, which took place at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. It seemed he had all the momentum in the second round, but then during an exchange, he got a finger into the eye of his opponent at the 46-second mark, resulting in a no contest.

Andre Fili flowing in the first!

[ #UFCVegas30 live on @ESPNPlus ] pic.twitter.com/CdNS6qT3tl

— UFC (@ufc) June 26, 2021

Daniel Pineda was deemed unable to continue after an accidental eye poke, leading to his #UFCVegas30 fight against Andre Fili being declared a No Contest. pic.twitter.com/goLeZqpvEW

— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) June 26, 2021

Pineda pleaded with the referee for several minutes for the fight to continue, claiming that he could continue. His eyelid was spasming, though, and he couldn’t open his eye to the pleasure of the doctor. He was asked to guess how many fingers the doctor held up, and said one instead of the three that were shown, prompting referee Herb Dean to wave the fight off.

“I guess he was f*cking me up,” Pineda said in his post-fight interview with Daniel Cormier. “It sucks. I thought we could’ve kept on going. I couldn’t see. It was a little blurry. He was f*cking me up, what can I say. But I think we need to do that again.”

Fili said he didn’t feel the need for a rematch, because he was in such one-sided control and would’ve got the win had the foul not occurred. He was frustrated with the situation, but tried to remain positive in the aftermath of a difficult situation.

“It’s super disappointing,” Fili told Cormier. “I put everything I had into this. I thought I did everything right except for one stupid slip, I put my hand into his chest and it went into his eye. It was an accident I would never do that on purpose.