UFC 184 results, photos: Accidental eye poke shuts down Roman Salazar vs. 'Kid' Yamamoto

LOS ANGELES – It was not likely the way Norifumi Yamamoto wanted to come back after a layoff in excess of 1,000 days.

In his first fight in three years, “Kid” Yamamoto (18-6 MMA, 0-3 UFC) saw his return ended with a no-contest after an accidental eye poke kept Roman Salazar (9-3 MMA, 0-1 UFC) unable to see. The action was stopped just past the midway point of the second round.

The bantamweight bout was part of the preliminary card of today’s UFC 184 event at Staples Center in Los Angeles. It aired on FOX Sports 1 following additional prelims on UFC Fight Pass and ahead of a main card on pay-per-view.

Yamamoto didn’t mess around, coming straight at Salazar looking to land early. He may have taken Salazar by surprise, but his opponent then settled in on the outside looking for an opening and tried to find one with a front kick. Yamamoto nearly caught Salazar with a right hand two minutes in, then a minute later landed a couple more punches and fended off a takedown attempt.

Yamamoto worked a leg kick early in the second, but Salazar used it for a takedown. Yamamoto was up quickly, though, and bounced on the outside as Salazar went back to looking for openings. After a brief stoppage for an accidental eye poke by Salazar to Yamamoto, Salazar landed a left. But Yamamoto responded with a right-left combo.

And soon after that, it was Yamamoto’s hand that scraped across Salazar’s left eye. After a lengthy stoppage for him to recover, he reported to referee John McCarthy and a cageside doctor that he was still unable to see out of the eye – giving no choice but for McCarthy to rule the bout a no-contest.

Salazar was looking for a return to the win column after an October loss to Mitch Gagnon in his UFC debut. Yamamoto stays winless in the UFC and has just one win since December 2007.

Up-to-the-minute UFC 184 results include:

For more on UFC 184, check out the UFC Events section of the site.

(MMAjunkie’s John Morgan and Steven Marrocco contributed to this report on site in Los Angeles.)