Sam Hyde suffers horror eye injury on undercard of Tony Bellew title fight against Oleksandr Usyk
British cruiserweight Hyde was stopped in his fight at the Manchester Arena due to a gruesome injury
SAM HYDE was stopped in his cruiserweight clash with Richard Riakpohre with a gruesome eye injury.
The Manchester lad was caught with a thunderous right hand from the rising prospect and his left eye ballooned up.
The fight for the vacant WBA Inter-Continental belt was stopped by the concerned referee Steve Gray.
And fans were shocked at the massive swelling on Hyde’s head.
One said: “Damn Sam Hyde’s eye is a mess never seen anything like that.”
Another wrote: “Horrific eye injury, completely the right decision.”
A fellow user posted: “That eye injury is shocking! Horribly injury! Hopefully he makes a full recovery.”
One comment read: “Towel went in. Completely the right decision.”
Hyde’s trainer Joe Gallagher called for the bout to be stopped as his man was clearly in need of medical attention.
The 25-year-old was ahead on the scorecards against heavyweight star Dillian Whyte’s protege.
And Riakpohre admitted he targeted the horror eye injury to secure his eighth professional win.
He said: “I was down on the scorecards so I had to pull it out of the bag.
“I hit him with a hook, his face swelled up so I targeting it. I thought they should throw in the towel.
“A lot of people wouldn’t have taken this risk in their eighth fight.”
And gym-mate and mentor Whyte backed his prospect.
The Body Snatcher said: “Richard is inexperienced.
“He would have worried about doing 10 rounds. But he pulled it out of the bag.”