UFC Featherweight Mohammad Yahya walked away with a loss and a heavily compromised eye at UFC Abu Dhabi.
The UFC Abu Dhabi prelims contain one of the most horrible eye injuries you will see in MMA during a featherweight fight between Mohammad Yahya and Steven Nguyen.
Yahya, a hero in the birthplace in Abu Dhabi, squared with two -time Dana White's Contender Series Striking Nguyen during the UFC Abu Dhabi Prelims. The fight eventually set a record at the expense of Yahya, while Nguyen performed a dominant performance.
Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC
Steven Nguyen almost explodes the eye of UFC Abu Dhabi in dominant victory
Nguyen set up a boxing clinic when he earned six knockdowns in total on Yahya as long as the fight lasted, including five in the first round. The six total knockdowns (per UFC statistics) established a promotion record for the most in one fight.
While Yahya repeatedly hit the deck, Nguyen did not leave his wild pace over two full action rounds. Referee Jason Herzog waved the fight at the end of round 2 when Yahya's Orbitaal swollen like a balloon; A horrible face for fans who view the action.
Six knockdowns lead to a TKO victory! 👊@steven_win gets his first career -Ufc -victory in style!
[ #UFCAbuDhabi | #InAbuDhabi | @InAbuDhabi | @VisitAbuDhabi ] pic.twitter.com/MU0G976ANY
– UFC (@UFC) July 26, 2025
UFC fans were shocked about Yahya's swollen Orbital after his wild prelims at UFC Abu Dhabi.
“Ouch!” A fan wrote on X.
“No more eye,” said another.
“Dedicated him to Mojo Jojo.”
“Don't get the urge to pop it … LOL.”
“The eye has disappeared.”
“Gray matter begged the referee to stop the fight at the end of the first round.”
“Why is he still there? Bring his A ** to the hospital.”
“Do you still want to become a hunter?”
“Yo that looks pretty wild !! Buddies face is about to bust !!”
“Omg! Fighting is terrible.”
At the moment, Yahya's latest medical status has not been announced by the promotion. Yahya was looking for his first UFC victory after back-to-back defeats to start his promotional term of office.
In the meantime, Nguyen bounced back after a UFC debut loss against Jarno Error in March 2024. He won back-to-back fights on DWCs in 2021 and 2023, including a contract-protecting knockout from AJ Cunningham.
Six knockdowns lead to a TKO victory! 👊@steven_win gets his first career -Ufc -victory in style!
[ #UFCAbuDhabi | #InAbuDhabi | @InAbuDhabi | @VisitAbuDhabi ] pic.twitter.com/MU0G976ANY
– UFC (@UFC) July 26, 2025
UFC Abu Dhabi -striking shared a cryptic prediction for the coming title fight
Before the action started at UFC Abu Dhabi, one of the biggest stars of the card shared a cold hypothesis for how the upcoming UFC 319 headliner will play between Dricus Du Plessis and Khamzat Chimaev. During his press conference in the media day, Shara Magomedov predicted a quick victory for the undefeated Chimaev, giving the champion du Plessis few opportunities to keep his belt.
Du Plessis returns to UFC 319 After beating Sean Strickland in a middleweight title Rematch earlier this year on UFC 312. In addition to his victory over Strickland, Du Plessis defeated former title holder Israel Adesanya last year in his first middleweight title defense in UFC 305.
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