The dreaded eye pokes in MMA

A great fight can be ruined by a doctor stoppage, but it’s even worse when that stoppage comes within the first fifteen seconds of a fight. The main event at Fight Night 159 was set up to be a stand up war for the ages, could have even been set up for fight of the year with Yair Rodriguez taking on long time, UFC veteran Jeremy Stephens. After a pretty good night of fights, the stage was set and the fans were on their feet in Mexico City to see their hometown hero take on the visiting American slugger. The bell rang and the fighters made their way to the center of the octagon and that’s when disaster struck. Yair Rodriguez accidentally scratched both of “Lil Heathen’s” eyes and after being given the full time to recover, Stephens was unable to open his eye and the fight was called a No Contest. Sure, UFC President Dana White was quick to set the rematch for October 18, and the two fighters who now have nothing but hate for each other get the chance to give us the show we missed out on, but that is just giving fans misdirection and not addressing the real issue here.

As if the fans losing out on what could have been a great war, now UFC fans will have to wait till next year to see the newly crowned Heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic back in action defending his belt that he got back in his rematch against Daniel Cormier. In his fight with Cormier, Miocic suffered an eye injury due to multiple eye pokes, and does not want to fight until he can see perfectly out of both eyes. Some fans of course criticize the champ, but in combat sports, being able to see is the most important thing especially when you’re trying to defend your championship. Issues like this are what could shorten careers in the long run, or even stop one when it begins. Fighters like Jon Jones get warnings during fights due to eye pokes, so what does the UFC and the commissions do to deter fighters from coming in with open fingers? They make a rule that says you will lose points or be disqualified, exactly how is that supposed to stop situations like the Rodriguez vs Stephens fight?

UFC commentator and Podcast genius Joe Rogan, has the best solution to the problem but the UFC just doesn’t listen. Joe has brought up numerous times on his podcast and even during fights, that the UFC should get rid of their current and outdated fighter gloves and bring the Pride style gloves in to help avoid eye pokes. Pride’s glove style has a curved design at the knuckles and covers the fingers up to the tip making it almost impossible to poke a fighter in the eye. It is such a simple solution which the UFC continues to ignore. Maybe someone needs to take control with these decisions who was actually a fighter, instead of the President calling the shots. Dana White is an excellent promoter, but when it comes to fighter safety it seems he just isn’t in touch with reality. Changing the gloves isn’t going to change the UFC’s identity, I mean the UFC trademarked an eight-sided polygon as their ring, but changing the gloves is Dana’s hill to die on? Fighter safety should be paramount not only during their career, but in the years after. It’s bad enough some of these fighters have to worry about permenant brain damage and a lifetime of painful arthritis due to their career choice, but long term issues with their vision, or potentially going blind due to an eye poke shouldn’t even be talked about. This is not a new issue to Dana White, back in 2012 Dana said they were working on a new style glove, but it was just an empty promise to the fans and a complete disservice to the fighters.

The UFC touts themselves as being the biggest and best organization in the MMA World, but if you ask me they are slowly falling behind the times. An organization like Bellator which everyone calls the UFC’s little brother, has a Pride style glove and we don’t hear about eye pokes ruining their fights. Sure, One FC has the UFC style glove, but they’re ahead of the game with their weight cutting policy which will help keep these fighters safe. The UFC needs to adapt and stop with their old ways of doing things and begin to look at these fighters futures for when their time is up, and to keep them safer for the shelf life they do have while fighting. And as for the fans who mock and jeer these fighters who have their fights stopped due to an eye poke need to take a step back and get some common sense. “If a man can’t see, he can’t fight” that is a line that was used in Karate Kid 3, and it should be the statement of the century when it comes to Mixed Martial Arts, not every fighter can get as lucky as Michael Bisbing and still be able to fight with a fixed retina, sometimes luck just runs out. I hope these recent events make Dana White wake up and actually make a change because if he doesn’t fighters aren’t going to care about the exposure they get from the UFC to pretty much get underpaid and risk permanent injury. As we have seen fighters are beginning to jump ship to Bare Knuckle Boxing where eye pokes haven’t been an issue, or they can jump to the UFC’s competitors like Bellator and have a longer shelf life.