Cat Zingano Appeals UFC 232 Loss to Megan Anderson

Cat Zingano has filed an appeal of her TKO loss to Megan Anderson at UFC 232. MMAjunkie reports that Zingano has filed an appeal asking the fight to be overturned to a no-contest due to the fact that Anderson’s kick in the first round went into her eye. Referee Marc Goddard ruled the kick legal, and waved the fight off when it was clear Zingano couldn’t continue.

Zingano’s lawyer is seeking “a legal opinion regarding the interpretation of the applicable rules” that were employed duyring the fight, arguing that the unified rules are vague because while eyepokes by fingers are an illegal blow, strikes that contact eyes are legal. Toes are not explicitly ruled out.

“The language of the Unified Rules regarding eye gouging is non exhaustive and the examples listed, namely ‘eye gouging by means of fingers, chin, or elbow,’ are not meant as the only methods by which a foul may occur,” says the appeal. “First, the language is plainly open ended, beginning with ‘eye gouging of any kind.…’ Had the Unified Rules intended to limit this foul to only the examples that followed and exclude toes from this foul, this rule would have been written with limiting language such as, ‘only eye gouging by means of fingers, chin, or elbow is illegal’ and omit the words ‘of any kind.’ Additionally, had this rule been meant to limit this foul to only the examples that followed and exclude toes, then by the same logic, a thumb to the eye would not be foul as the rule merely mentions fingers, not thumbs.”

Zingano told ESPN that she had been considering an appeal, and that the kick damaged her iris and retina.