Eye pokes have continued to be one of the biggest talking points in MMA following their recent impact on some big fights.
Two weeks ago at UFC Seattle, Henry Cejudo couldn’t continue in his fight with Song Yadong due to an eye poke that stopped the contest in the fourth round.
Whilst the fight ended via a finish, they also had a significant sway in last weekend’s UFC Vegas 103 main event which Cejudo commented on.
This has led to many fighters giving their solutions to overcome this problem whether there should be stricter penalties or a refined glove design.
Eye pokes have once again become a talking point for a third week in a row in the mean time following the ending of a main event in Europe.
Cage Warriors 183 main event ends in a no contest due to an eye poke in the third round
On March 8, European promotion Cage Warriors returned to Rome, Italy for CW 183 which boasted two title fights at the top of the card.
The headliner saw Paddy Pimblett’s teammate Liam Gittins putting his bantamweight title on the line against the rising Italian contender, Alessandro Giordano.
With his relentless pace and pressure, the champion was in the ascendancy in the third round and appeared to be on his way to keeping hold of the belt.
That was until an eye poke stopped the action with the challenger taking the full five-minute period to try and recover.
Unlike what happened between Henry Cejudo and referee Jason Herzog in Seattle where the fight was resumed meaning that it could go to a technical decision in the fourth round, this main event ended in the third.
Despite Gittins defending his title via a no contest due to an unintentional eye poke, fight fans on social media were critical of the challenger rather than demanding a rematch between them.
“Giordano played that. No rematch, move the division along,” said one viewer on X. “Damn CW what was that ending lol #CW183 Giordano quitting, makes it a NC?” Remarked another.
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Something has to be done about eye pokes
The past three weekends have raised a major red flag over eye pokes that simply cannot be ignored.
In cases like Manel Kape’s win over Asu Almabayev, not much can be done if the referee doesn’t spot a significant eye poke.
UFC record holder Jim Miller argued that pay cuts should be enforced because he believes that it’s not an issue with the gloves but the lack of punishment.
It’s not a simple fix but it’s quite clearly an issue that is impacting results and careers whilst ruining fights at the same time.