Things did not go according to plan in Daniel Frunza’s UFC debut.
After scoring an impressive second-round knockout against Vadym Kutsyi on Dana White’s Contender Series in September, ‘Tigano’ made his promotional premiere at UFC Vegas 105 on Saturday night in Las Vegas against Irish striker Rhys McKee.
Previously winless inside the Octagon, McKee entered the bout desperate for a win and ended up delivering the best performance of his UFC career thus far, pummelling Frunza from pillar to post and knocking down the Romanian an incredible three times in the opening round.
To Frunza’s credit, he never backed down and ultimately made it out of the round, but by then, the damage had already been done.
Frunza’s UFC debut was halted by the cageside physician
Frunza’s right eye was practically swollen shut with a small laceration underneath. However, that wasn’t what prompted the cageside physician to call for a mid-round stoppage.
It was actually a horrifying injury to Frunza’s upper lip. While fans didn’t get a good look at the injury on TV, Dana White gave fans a close-up look at the incredible graphic injury.
You have been warned.
The images are very reminiscent of Alistair Overeem’s nasty lip injury against Jairzinho Rozenstruik in 2019.
The loss dropped Frunza to 9-3 in his mixed martial arts career while McKee improved to 14-6-1. He is now 1-4 in the UFC.
