Wang Cong says eye poke led to slow start in first statement following main event loss to Natalia Silva at UFC 332

Wang Cong says an early eye poke led to her not having the performance she wanted in Wang's first ever UFC title fight.

Natalia Silva captured the UFC women's flyweight title with a unanimous decision victory over Wang in the main event of Saturday's UFC 332 event in Salt Lake City. Silva seemed to be cruising to a win, but Wang began to turn things up a notch — especially in the fifth round — but it was too little, too late for the 34-year-old.

In her first statement since the loss, Wang says she was poked in the right eye in the first round, which took her a bit to get through.

"Thank you for supporting, my friends," Wang said on Instagram. "The game is lost. What a pity. I have some regrets then because of the first [round], the eye was poked in the second half. The line of sight is blocked and then I couldn't see it when I was poked in the right eye in the first [round]. Wait until later to slow down, it's too slow to enter.

"Where to fall, get up, go back and summarize yourself. Come on, try again."

Silva and Wang fought for the title that was vacated by Valentina Shevchenko to close out a wild card in the promotion's return to Utah.