Jake Hager has some vision back in his left eye, about three weeks after a Power Slap strike left him bleeding from it in Lubbock, Texas.
The update came secondhand, through an old wrestling colleague. Nicholas Cvjetkovich, who worked in WWE as Kizarny and also goes by Sinn Bodhi, passed along the news. Slap News then relayed it on Instagram, describing the damage as a globe rupture and a significant globe tear. Bloody Elbow picked up the report from there.
The progress is real, and so are the limits on it. “The extent to which Jake’s vision will be restored is unknown at this time and he may require additional surgeries,” the Slap News post stated.
How it happened
Hager took the shot at Power Slap 23 on September 17. Blood started coming out of his eye after the hit, and the clip spread across social media fast, the kind of video people forward with a warning attached. Dana White said it was probably worse than any injury the UFC has produced, which is a heavy statement from a guy who has watched a lot of shins snap.
Hager went into emergency eye surgery after the event, which was reported last month.
Lubbock was his third appearance in Power Slap. He had split his first two, one win and one loss, so the injury also came in a defeat that dropped him to 1-2 in the promotion.
His road to the slap table was a long one. Hager is a former WWE champion who spent years wrestling for several different promotions, and he also fought in Bellator before signing with Power Slap earlier this year.
What’s next
Nobody has put a timeline on a full recovery. There’s also no word on whether Hager wants to compete again, in Power Slap or anywhere else.
One voice has weighed in on that already. A doctor advised Hager to walk away from Power Slap after the injury, citing the risk of further damage in a ruleset where the guy getting hit isn’t allowed to defend himself.
That advice should be the end of the conversation. In MMA, Hager could at least move his head, check a kick or shoot a takedown. Power Slap asks you to plant your feet and absorb a full-power swing to the side of the face, and that is the last thing a man with a surgically repaired globe should be doing. He got some sight back in his left eye. The best move for Hager is to protect it, take the follow-up surgeries if he needs them, and leave the slap table to somebody with two healthy eyes.
