Smith: "I wanted to continue fighting."

EliteXC middleweight title contender “Hands of Stone” Scott Smith (13-4) responded to reported accounts of the events in the cage after Smith was inadvertently poked in the right eye with a thumb from Fighters.com’s sixth-ranked middleweight and EliteXC champion “Ruthless” Robbie Lawler (15-4) 31 May in Newark, west of New York City, including New Jersey State Athletic Control Board Counsel Nick Lembo’s account, in an interview published at Sherdog Friday.

“I wanted to continue fighting,” Smith said, “but I wanted to wait out my five minutes because, you know, my eye was hurt and I couldn’t see too well.”  He added, “The ref had told me I had five minutes.”

Smith also said, “Not once did I ever say, “I want to stop this fight.” For some reason the doctor stepped in and said, “If you can’t see now, you can’t fight.”

In a Fighters.com exclusive, Lembo said 2 June that Smith was repeatedly asked by veteran fight doctor Sherry Wulkan whether his vision was improving.  Smith responded that it wasn’t; and, after about a minute, Wulkan determined that if Smith’s vision wasn’t improving, the fight should be stopped.

I was just blown away [by the doctor stoppage],” Smith said.

Smith also accused, “The doctor was looking at the wrong eye.  They were looking at my eye and I was like, “No, this eye.  No, this eye.  No, this eye.”  So, they didn’t know what was going on, I think.”