Thiago Tavares' gruesome forehead gash? It was actually two cuts

Thiago Tavares

Thiago Tavares somehow made it to the third round before an eventual loss to Brian Ortega. But the fact he made it that far with such a gory forehead gash was a bit of a victory in itself.

With the featherweight fight tied (18-20, 19-19, 20-18) heading into the final frame of their UFC Fight Night 68 bout, Tavares (19-6-1 MMA, 9-6-1 UFC) ultimately suffered a TKO loss to Ortega (9-0 MMA, 1-0 UFC) in the final minute of the bout.

Tavares, though, was fighting an uphill battle from the first round, when Ortega landed a slicing elbow from his back and opened the deep cut above the Brazilian’s right eye. In fact, with Ortega repeatedly targeting the area, he actually opened two gashes – one on top of the other:

Thiago Tavares

As the main-card fight, which aired on FOX Sports 1 from New Orleans’ Smoothie King Center, wore on, Tavares was repeatedly forced to wipe away the blood from his eyes.

The UFC and FOX Sports didn’t provide video highlights of the bout (perhaps due to the blood-soaked nature of the scrap), but you can see more images from the bloody bout in the gallery below.

And for complete coverage of UFC Fight Night 68, check out the UFC Events section of the site.