Karolina Kowalkiewicz Had Double Vision at UFC Auckland, Has Surgery Planned for Injuries

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Karolina Kowalkiewicz Official (@karolinakowalkiewicz) on Feb 23, 2020 at 12:02pm PST

It was clear that Karolina Kowalkiewicz was having trouble seeing for much of her bout against Xiaonan Yan at UFC Auckland on Saturday.

The former strawweight challenger ended up losing a lopsided unanimous verdict after suffering an eye injury during the opening stanza of the bout. Kowalkiewicz revealed the extent of her injuries in a video posted to her Instagram account.

“First time in my life after fight, I cannot say I’m OK,” Kowalkiewicz stated. “Like you see, in the beginning of the first round I have broken small bone [below my eye]. I couldn’t see nothing. My vision was double and everything was like in the fog. After the fight, I spent all day in hospital.

“Today I’m going to specialist and they make decision. Because I need operation and I’m waiting on decision here or I can go back to Poland and make this operation in Poland. The doctors said I have to stay here because flying with this eye is very dangerous.”

Kowalkiewicz has struggled in recent years since coming up short in a title bit against Joanna Jedrzejczyk at UFC 205 in November 2016. Including that defeat, the 34-year-old Pole has gone just 2-6 in her last eight Octagon appearances. The loss to Yan marked her fourth straight defeat since September 2018.