Browne beats Mitrione by TKO after repeated eye gouges and ref controversy
Matt Mitrione's right eye took a bad beating due to both legal and illegal blows from Travis Browne, Sunday. The two heavyweights battled for nearly three rounds on the main card of the championship FS1 card in Boston.
The fight was close until Browne illegally gouged Mitrione's right eye twice. A late right cross to the same eye built on the damage, and was the beginning of the end for Mitrione.
Mitrione began the fight bouncing, walking towards Browne's power hand, then lunging in with his chin up in the air and his fists swinging hard. For his part, Browne used a more measured approach, and a long, wide and orthodox stance against the southpaw former football player.
Browne's first connected strikes were front kicks to the body and Mitrione's were left crosses and a right hook. With just under a minute and a half left, Mitrione dropped "Hapa" with a short left to the jaw.
Browne bounced back to his feet and managed to land more front kicks before poking Mitrione in the right eye, badly, with just seconds left in the round. Mitrione was given time to recover and was inspected by the ringside doctor before the action resumed for a few moments prior to the round ending.
Mitrione came out swinging hard in the second. He connected with a leg kick and hurt Browne with more punches to the head.
Soon, he was poked in the eye again and covered up but the referee didn't see the poke and forced the action to continue. The two men continued to fight, as Mitrione kept his right eye closed, in pain.
Mitrione told the referee that he was seeing double while fighting Browne. At that point, the referee improperly stepped in and called a time out that he did not actually have the authority to do.
If a referee sees a foul, they can stop a fight for a fighter to have time to recover and to be looked at by a doctor. However, according to unified MMA rules, neither fighters nor referees can call effective time outs at other points, without the fight being called over.
Nonetheless, the fight was stopped, the doctor brought back in to examine and speak with Mitrione. Then, Mitrione was asked if he wanted to continue after being given the improper time out.
He asked to continue, the referee didn't take any points away from Browne, and the two big men resumed fighting. Browne soon took Mitrione down and worked for a shoulder lock from the side mount, and then a front head lock before Mitrione worked his way up to the feet.
On the feet, Browne landed several more front kicks to the body before connecting with a right cross and knee to the head, before the second round ended.
At the start of the third, Browne went back to work with body kicks after keeping Mitrione at the end of his pawing left hand. From inside the clinch, Browne attempted a trip, missed it, but then took the back of Mitrione and slammed him to the mat with a suplex.
Browne immediately moved to mount with over two minutes left and rained down punches and elbows until the referee stepped in to stop the fight. The end came at 4:09 of the third round.
After getting up to his feet, Mitrione revealed a right eye that was as or more swollen than any eye has ever been in UFC history.
The win improves Browne's record to 18-3-1. The loss comes in the final bout of Mitrione's current UFC contract, and drops his overall mark to 9-5.
