Entering the UFC Fight Night preliminary featherweight bout, Steven Nguyen was already a favorite. With a 10-2 record, he had proven his striking volume and capacity can be quite dangerous. Certainly, Mohammed Yahya knows now. Stepping into the octagon, Nguyen attacked the The UAE Warrior with powerful combinations from the get go. While Yahya tried to attack with his ill-fated jumping knee, Nguyen kept countering with his shots. And that was just the first round.

Before the second round, Yahya was already sitting in his corner with an injured eye. Still, the doctor, the referee, and even his crew didn’t stop him from fighting more. The second round again saw The Ninja keep his opponent off his feet as the eye ballooned shut by the end. It reached to a point that the referee Jason Herzog had to mercifully wave off at 5:00 in the second round, giving Nguyen a TKO. That was how bad it looked. But hours later, a medical update revealed a surprising twist.

MMA journalist Nolan King reported on X, “Muhammad Yahya amazingly did not suffer any facial fractures, and his CT scan came back negative, per @JohnGoodenUK on the #UFCAbuDhabi broadcast.” However, the look was so bad that it left even the toughest fight fans squirming and one former champ did not even wish to believe the health update.

Veteran UFC fighter and former Cage Fury featherweight champion Jared Gordon was quick to weigh in. He wasn’t buying the clean bill of health as he responded to the post by writing, “Swelling a lot of times hides fractures…”

Gordon’s words struck a nerve in the MMA community. Surely, being a former fighter himself, he understands how grotesque MMA can be and how fractures can be hidden underneath all the swelling. After all, the images from Yahya’s loss were hard to forget. Steven Nguyen put on a clinic, knocking Yahya down six times, setting a new UFC record for most knockdowns in a single fight. It was fast, violent, and hard to watch.

To Mohammad Yahya’s credit, he hung in there longer than most expected. Even rocked repeatedly, he had a moment early in the second round where he stunned Nguyen with a clean punch. The arena buzzed for a second. But Nguyen regained composure, dropped him again, and the punishment continued.

By the end of round two, Yahya’s eye had ballooned shut, and his face looked like it had met with a sledgehammer inside the Octagon. His toughness was undeniable. But as Jared Gordon’s comment implies, toughness sometimes comes at a dangerous cost.

Nguyen, meanwhile, was all smiles post-fight. In the post-fight interview, he confessed, “I’ve been working so hard for this moment. It’s finally here. The fight’s not over until it’s over. I came into UFC 0-1 and I come back and I wanted that finish. Here we are now.”

As for Mohammad Yahya, the next few days will be crucial. Negative scans or not, the damage is real, as the MMA world, including UFC boss Dana White, chimed in with their reactions to the battering he took at UFC Abu Dhabi.

MMA world left stunned after Mohammad Yahya’s brutal loss to Steven Nguyen at UFC Abu Dhabi

It wasn’t just the fans wincing. Fighters, commentators, and even UFC CEO Dana White reacted after Mohammad Yahya’s one-sided loss to Steven Nguyen in Abu Dhabi. The damage was hard to ignore, and so were the reactions.

White shared a photo of Yahya after the fight on his Instagram story, likely recognizing the UAE fighter’s toughness. But his post also served as a plug for the rest of the card and for those watching live, it was Yahya’s swollen face and repeated knockdowns that stood out.

Many were stunned that the fight wasn’t stopped earlier. Former UFC fighter Zac Pauga took a sarcastic jab at referee Jason Herzog’s decision to let the bout continue. “Herzog wants to see a dead body up close and I respect it,” he wrote on X. It was brutal, but echoed the disbelief of many watching.

Veteran analyst Dan Hardy was more measured, but equally concerned. “Kinda felt like a ‘stop the fight’ moment there… What was that, five knockdowns?” he posted. The official number was six, a new UFC record.

Current UFC stars also chimed in. Flyweight contender Casey O’Neill reacted to Yahya’s swollen eye, calling it “INSANE.” Lightweight Terrance McKinney added, “The whole upper left side of his face is swollen that’s crazy.”

Mohammad Yahya may have walked away without a confirmed fracture, but the visible damage and the debate it sparked tell a different story. From the swelling that shocked everyone to the six knockdowns that set a record, his night in Abu Dhabi was less about a comeback and more about survival. As fighters call for better protection in the cage, Yahya’s brutal loss has become a reminder that toughness should never be mistaken for invincibility.