(Props: elytko via BloodyElbow)

Not sure if was intentional, but Jake Shields‘s fingers introduced themselves to Georges St. Pierre‘s left eyeball on Saturday night, causing an injury that’s still bugging the UFC welterweight champ. Greg Jackson spoke to Sherdog after UFC 129, and let it be known that GSP’s performance might have been more impressive if not for that poke:

“Georges’s eye was pretty badly injured — he told me that in between rounds — and Georges is a very timing-based fighter, and so when one of your eyes is injured your depth-perception gets off pretty significantly and it’s very hard for you to time the shots because it’s hard to see where they are coming. I felt he did really, really well considering he fought with one eye, I’m really proud of him for fighting through that. We’ll try to get better and do better the next time, but I really feel the injury played a significant role…he was just missing a little bit, he was just off a little bit on some of those big shots, and I feel like if he would have had both eyes he could have landed those shots and could have done a lot more damage.”

Responding to the argument that GSP should have finished Jake anyway, you know, because he’s so awesome and Jake Shields sucks, Jackson didn’t mince words:

“I would say that, A) You’re ignorant, B) You’re fighting Jake Shields who’s a phenomenal fighter. I’m not sure where people get this idea that Jake Shields is like this punching bag, the kid’s an amazing fighter…I would say that you don’t understand the nature of combat, you don’t understand the opponent, and if you did understand those two things, you would be impressed by Georges fighting through something like that with an eye injury, and you would also give a lot more respect to Jake Shields, who’s not anybody’s punching bag.”

In a related story, Jose Aldo might also have an excuse for performing a little flat in his own championship bout against Mark Hominick. We’re not exactly sure what it is, but apparently he was regretting not taking antibiotics after the fight.