Charles Jourdain Reveals He Lost His Eyesight During UFC 331 Fight
Charles Jourdain says he waved off his UFC 331 fight against Marlon Vera after losing his vision in the third round.
Charles Jourdain has revealed the frightening reason he waved off his UFC 331 bout against Marlon Vera. The Canadian bantamweight says he lost his eyesight in the third round, per Sherdog.
Jourdain was knocked down in the third frame, and rather than continue absorbing strikes he could no longer see coming, he signaled to the referee that he was done. The stoppage gave Vera his first finish victory in four years.
"Lost my eyesight in the third," Jourdain wrote on Instagram. "I waved the fight 'cause I don't need to receive more strikes to the head. I lost. I failed."
The decision to stop was a difficult but sensible one. Continuing to fight while unable to see would have exposed Jourdain to catastrophic damage with no realistic path to winning. No further medical details about the cause of his vision loss or its current status have been reported.
The loss snaps a three-fight winning streak for Jourdain at 135 pounds. He had looked sharp since dropping from featherweight to bantamweight, and the setback is his first at the lower weight class.
For Vera, the win gets him back in the victory column after a prolonged rough stretch. "Chito" had gone without a stoppage since 2022, making the third-round TKO a significant result for the 32-year-old Ecuadorian veteran.
Charles Jourdain did the smart thing and then beat himself up about it, which is the most fighter thing imaginable. He could not see. He had just been dropped. He waved it off so he would not eat more punches he could not see coming. That is not failing, that is having a brain and wanting to keep it.
We spend a lot of time praising guys for fighting through injuries that should have stopped them, and then we act surprised when they are slurring their words at 40. Jourdain made the call the referee and doctor should be making for fighters every night. I hope the vision comes back fully and nobody in his camp lets him believe he quit.
For Chito, a stoppage after four years is huge, and it ends a four-fight skid. He needed that more than anyone realizes. Both guys walk away with something. Jourdain gets his eyes and his career, and Vera gets his confidence back.
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