A new close-up photo has revealed just how gruesome the eye poke that Leon Edwards landed on Belal Muhammad at UFC Vegas 21 actually was.

Muhammad was fighting in the first main event of his UFC career, taking the fight with Edwards on short notice after Khamzat Chimaev withdrew due to COVID-19 health issues. After a competitive first round, the second round was just starting when Edwards landed a nasty eye poke to Muhammad that had “Remember the Name” writhing in pain. It was clear that Muhammad’s vision was negatively impacted by the eye poke, and after a discussion with the cage-side physician, referee Herb Dean ruled the fight a No Contest.

It was a disappointing end to what had started out as a great fight, but health is the greatest concern for these fighters, and when Muhammad said he couldn’t see anything, the fight obviously had to be stopped. Following the event, a close-up photo began circulating around social media showing Edwards’ fingers digging deep into the eye socket of Muhammad. Take a look at the photo below and you see how bad the eye poke was.

Ugh, how gross is this picture! pic.twitter.com/sbjrCL7H86

— Funky (@Benaskren) March 14, 2021

That looks like a really nasty eye poke, so anyone who questioned Muhammad’s desire to continue fighting just needs to look at this photo to realize how wrong they are. It was clear from his reaction and it’s clear from this picture that this was one of the most gruesome pokes we have seen in quite some time. Fortunately, it appears as though Muhammad is going to be ok and escape with no long-term damage to his eye. But the question of what the UFC and mixed martial arts, in general, can do to fix the gloves so these eye pokes don’t happen so often is now at the forefront of everyone’s minds.

Do you think the UFC should run back Leon Edwards vs. Belal Muhammad next?