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Ouch! NFL veteran Austen Lane made the least of his UFC debut today when he accidentally put most of three fingers into opponent Justin Tafa’s eyes—note the plural—which led to a no contest ruling only 29 seconds into their bout at today’s UFC Fight Night in Florida.
That’s three of Austen Lane’s fingers buried in two eyeballs alright
Lane, a defensive end in his NFL career who played for the Jacksonville Jaguars, (he wrote about getting cut from the team for Sports Illustrated), and briefly for the Kansas City Chiefs, Detroit Lions and Chicago Bears, was making his UFC debut today in Jacksonville. Lane lost to fellow NFL veteran Greg Hardy in Dana White’s Contenders Series in 2018 before winning his way to the Ultimate Fighting Championship in the 2022 edition of the show.
The New Zealand born Tafa was on his 7th fight for the promotion where he’s gone 3-3 until today.
But you’re here for gore so let’s take a look at some, first the three-finger, two-eyeball poke and then the bloody aftermath. It took the doctor and referee Dan Miragliotta over three minutes debating before Tan Dan waved off the fight. UFC announcer Jon Anik said the two opposing corners were arguing with each other during the deliberations.
Because the eyepoke was ruled an accident, the fight was declared a no contest. Justin Tafa wasn’t happy.
UFC Twitter had a LOT to say about this
Tafa’s fellow Octagonians weren’t shy about expressing their opinions.
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