Muhammad Loses to Garry Amid Eye Poke Controversy

Former UFC welterweight champion Belal Muhammad suffered a unanimous decision loss to Ian Machado Garry in the co-main event of UFC Qatar on November 22, extending his skid to two straight defeats amid controversy over repeated eye pokes that went unpunished.

The bout, held in Doha, saw the 37-year-old Muhammad struggle to implement his wrestling-based game plan against the taller, striking-oriented Garry. Judges scored the fight 29-28 across the board for Garry, who improved to 15-1 in his UFC career. Muhammad, entering the matchup after dropping his title to Jack Della Maddalena in May, landed few takedowns and absorbed jabs throughout the three rounds. However, the fight drew scrutiny when referees paused action twice for what appeared to be accidental eye pokes from Garry, though no points were deducted.

In his first detailed post-fight comments, uploaded to his YouTube channel, Muhammad expressed frustration over the incidents, claiming three eye pokes in total and suggesting they impaired his vision and performance. "What did we see in the fight? Obviously, we didn't see much, got poked in the eye three times," Muhammad said. He accused Garry of exploiting the lack of...