'That is awful': Aussie wins UFC bout despite eye gouge

Aussie fighter Jake Matthews overcame one of the dirtiest tactics imaginable to prevail in his UFC 221 bout in Perth.

The welterweight fighter almost submitted his opponent Li Jingliang with a guillotine choke but the Chinese fighter got out of it by raking at the Aussie's eyes in desperation.

Blood could be seen flowing down Matthews' face as the referee warned the Chinese fighter to remove his fingers from the Aussie's eyes.

The disgraceful display of eye-gouging wasn't enough to stop Matthews who claimed a unanimous points victory after the judges scored the fight 29-28, 30-26 and 30-26.

"I knew he had a hard head, I knew I had to follow up," Matthews said.

"He was tough, I was in the corner, I did it for you the fans."

To his credit, Matthews refused to condemn his opponent after the brutal bout.

"It was in the heat of the fight," Matthews said in reference to the eye-gouging tactics.

"You don't realise this stuff, it is what it is."

The win was Matthews' second in a row and improved his record to 12-3, while the loss was Jingliang's first in five fights.

Matthews was fighting on the undercard to the main event fight that Yoel Romero won against Luke Rockhold courtesy of a vicious third round TKO.