Even if you had a few too many scops over the weekend, we sincerely doubt your head was feeling worse than Brennan Ward’s on Monday morning.
“Irish” Ward has always been a fan favourite in the Bellator promotion because of his sheer love of combat. No matter what opponent is staring him dead in the eye from across the cage, once the referee starts the fight, he’s guaranteed to try to give the fans their money’s worth and turn it into a fight.
Sometimes this tactic pays off, sometimes it doesn’t, but fans are generally going to be blessed with an exciting scrap if Ward is involved.
Unfortunately for the Waterford native (that’s Waterford, Conneticut), he was caught in his last fight against Nottingham knockout artist Paul Daley at Bellator 170 in a bad way.
Ward had to be stretchered out of the cage #Bellator170 https://t.co/7FWaiMwwfY
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) January 22, 2017
UFC veteran Daley entered into the co-main event bout with 28 knockouts on his professional record. 2:27 into the fight, he secured his 29th with a spectacular flying knee that landed with enough force to draw blood from an Easter Island head.
Anything that was in that knee’s path was going to crumble. On this occasion, it was Ward’s eye that took the full brunt of the damage. He went crashing down to the canvas on impact and had to be taken out of the cage on a stretcher.
A few hours later, the world got to see the gruesome effects of the thunderous coup de grace. Mike Bohn of MMAJunkie shared an image of the his post-knockout left eye and to put it in the simplest terms possible, it has seen better days.
Paul Daley's flying knee did a real number on Brennen Ward's face. I'm going to go cry now. pic.twitter.com/ejauEYb6Eg
— Mike Bohn (@MikeBohn) January 22, 2017
