Veteran UFC featherweight Nik Lentz reveals he nearly lost an eye in a unanimous decision loss to Arnold Allen earlier this year.

Lentz returns to the Octagon in January 2021 when he takes on Mike Grundy on the undercard of UFC Fight Night: Holloway vs. Kattar. In January of this year, Lentz took on top featherweight prospect Allen and he lost a hard-fought fight via unanimous decision. During the fight, Lentz suffered an eye injury due to an eye poke. He ended up losing that fight, but Lentz was far more concerned that he might lose his eye. For the next few months after the fight with Allen, Lentz struggled to deal with his injured eye.

“I ended up having triple vision. From that moment on, it was like four-and-a-half minutes left in the fight, I was fighting three guys. I was just trying to hit the one in the middle, I guess. I didn’t work it out at the time. I never had this happen, but in the fight, I was trying to close the eye, but it turns out it’s really hard to try to close your eye when someone is trying to punch at you. It just automatically opens,” Lentz told James Lynch of MMA News (via MMAjunkie.com).

“After the fight, I couldn’t even get out of the cage. I couldn’t see the steps. I couldn’t see anything. My vision didn’t return to normal for nine months after that until I had surgery.  I went and had to see a series of doctors. No one could really figure out what the problem was. The eye had healed, but I still couldn’t see right. I still had terrible double vision. I went to specialists and specialists and specialists, and finally I found one.”

Nik Lentz ended up having eye surgery and he is feeling much better as the year winds down. Lentz returns in just three weeks from now against Grundy on Fight Island. Thankfully the doctors were able to fix the issue with his vision and the 36-year-old American will look to snap a two-fight losing streak when he gets back in the Octagon.