Alexander Gustafsson finished Glover Teixeira in the fifth round in the main event of UFC Fight Night 109 in Stockholm, Sweden, on Sunday. But an early unintentional eye poke may have played a big factor in the contest.

Gustfasson poked the Brazilian in the eye in the first round, and Teixeira told his cornermen between the first and second round he still "couldn’t see anything” out of his right eye.

A day after the tough defeat, Teixeira spoke with MMA Fighting about the incident.

"If I tell you that that didn’t disturb me, that’s a lie,” Teixeira said. "Everybody knows, a fighter or not, that getting poked in the eye like that, it was strong, so that disturbed me. But if I had gotten knocked out right after that, I’d definitely blame it. I went back in there without seeing anything. I was seeing three Gustafssons. It was all blurry, but I thought I’d have five minutes (to recover).

"I don’t know if you saw this, but I told the (referee) ‘of course I’ll come back to fight, but I need a time to, I don’t know, rub my eyes, wait to recover’. But he said ‘you get no time, you get no time. Or you’re good to come back or you’re not.’”

Referee Marc Goddard, the third man inside the Octagon for the main event in Stockholm, went on Twitter later night to explain that a fighter doesn’t get five minutes to recover from an eye poke, but the Brazilian didn’t know that.

To clarify and help, many have asked. With fouls fighters CANNOT receive 5 minutes of recovery, expect the groin strike. — Marc Goddard (@marcgoddard_uk) May 28, 2017

Once Dr makes call there's no injury the fighter must continue or it's over. Thanks again. — Marc Goddard (@marcgoddard_uk) May 28, 2017

"I didn’t know if they would cancel the fight, if it would be a no contest, but I didn’t want that. Of course not,” Teixeira said. "I’m a fighter and I believe I had chances to defeat him, otherwise I wouldn’t even be fighting. But I think that, without that eye poke, maybe I’d be able to impose my game, at least in the first round.”

According to Teixeira, his vision was back to normal in the third round. "In the second round, I still couldn’t see everything,” he said.

The fight went on, and Gustafsson continued to dominate the striking battle until he finally got the finish in the fifth round.

"Regardless, I think that, the way he was fighting, the speed… he was better, I couldn’t find him,” Teixeira said. "After my eye got better, I couldn’t find him. The result would really have been the same. Maybe not the knockout, a closer fight, but the result would have been the same.

"Congratulations to Gustafsson. He fought me in the best shape of my life, no injuries whatsoever. I have no excuses."